Lost Oldest
by cloud777
Summary: Phoebe discovers a secret when she applies for a job at South Bay Social Service where she meets Paige for the first time. Afterwards, the sisters discover another huge secret. Age: Paige-25(yes, she is the eldest), Prue-24, Piper-22 Phoebe-18


Ok this is my first fic ever so don't be too hard...

It has very little of guys in it, I focused on showing the bond/relationship between the sisters and I have to say it's very, very Phoebe centered so if you don't like fics like that, don't read. For all the other readers: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The characters of the Halliwells are property of WB, Aaron Spelling and Constance M. Burge.

18 year old Phoebe Halliwell looked out of her window. "Great. Another rainy day." Groaning she looked at the digital watch next to her bed. 7:00. This was her first year at college and she didn't want to screw up ever again. She wanted to make her sisters proud, especially Prue. So therefore there was no skipping classes or being late again. And today was the day she was supposed to have a job interview, too. Not a big thing though, it was something a college student could do just after school. Slowly getting out of bed she clumsily made her way towards the bathroom, where another cold shower awaited her. "Gosh, why do I always have to be the one with this cold water, huh!" She shouted to no one.

"There we go. She's complaining again. She should get out of bed earlier if she wants some hot water."

"Oh, cut her some slack Prue, she's trying real hard. She even has plans for getting a job and I think today's the interview for it.", Piper smiled as she recalled her baby sister's face as the girl told her of her plans excitedly. Trying so hard to make them proud.

"That job? Piper come on, you don't actually believe she can handle college AND a job, do ya? I mean when was she ever punctual at school? When did she ever take responsibility at all? She's gonna give up pretty soon, you'll see. IF she gets the job anyway."

"Don't be so hard on her now, at least not when she's around cause I think she really wants to achieve something and I do believe in her being successful. YOU will see."

"Morning"

Both older sisters were interrupted by the voice coming from the entrance of the kitchen.

"Hi sweetie, want some coffee?" Piper said as she made her way towards the coffee machine already knowing the answer and handing her sister the mug.

"Thanks Pipe. Umm, Prue?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you do me a favor?" Phoebe asked a sheepish smile on her face. Sighing, Prue glared back at her former(?) trouble maker.  
"Yes, Phoebe, I can give you a ride to school but hurry up I need to go to an early photo shoot." Not really surprised her sister knew what she was going to ask since she had done that lots of times during high school, Phoebe prepared for asking the next question.

"There's one more thing. Can you pick me up after school and drop me off at the Social Services?"

"Ah, the job thingy, so you're serious, huh? Okay Pheebs, I'll do it. But don't get used to it cause I'm only doing this since you got that interview." Still not quite believing in her sister but thought it best to let it go for now Prue got up and made her way towards the front door.

"Thanks Prue and of course I'm serious, why shouldn't I be?" Never hearing the rest of the conversation as the door closed Piper started cleaning up the kitchen table, somehow surprised that her older sister didn't start to argue again due to the claim of the youngest. So she would meet her sisters at Quake later this evening and would be hearing how it went for Phoebe.

The day at college was a usual one as all the others, except that she was a little nervous about the interview later that day, and Prue not completely believing in her didn't help either. 'Oh come on, it's just a little job, nothing like you seriously wanna work there for your life, Phoebe.' She thought to herself as she went to the parking lot where she saw Prue's car pulling up.

"Hey, thanks again for doing this."

"Ss okay Pheebs, now get in you don't want to be late, right?"

The drive to the place was silent. Even if this was just some kind of an application for a job as an assistant which can be done by anyone even without a proper education, it was the first time for Phoebe to be interviewed, to have to present herself for achieving something.

"Nervous?" She heard Prue's voice.

"Kind of, yeah."

"Hey, it's not like this is gonna be the most important thing in your life, you know?"

"I know, but still…"Leaning against the side window of the car Phoebe let out a small sigh. As an answer, Prue patted Phoebe's knee with her free hand before giving it a light squeeze of assurance.

"We're here." Looking up, Phoebe saw the entrance of South Bay Social Services. Several people were going in and out of it.

"Okay then, good luck! ...Hey, hey lighten up, squirt! Nothing's gonna happen to you."

Phoebe looked up to Prue chocolate brown meeting ice blue. Her little sister was just so cute when she was scared. In fact, Prue actually liked it whenever she was somehow needed. Even if it was sometimes driving her nuts.

"Come here hon." Drawing her baby sis into a comforting hug "You'll be fine, okay?"

she whispered into her curly brown hair.

Phoebe nodded slightly and after getting her forehead kissed she got out of the car and started walking towards the entrance. Not expecting this action to change her and her sisters' life forever….

It was a totally normal and boring day for Paige Matthiews. Since nearly five years she worked as a social worker and today was no different. Arriving at her working place, she saw the mass of papers on her desk in her office and groaned. Her office. She was an excellent worker and was just recently promoted to a pretty high position.

Suddenly she remembered one thing and her mood instantly lightened up. She was supposed to interview the applicants for the job as her assistant today and she really liked interviews. At least when she was the one asking the questions. It meant getting to know fresh faces and, hopefully, young spirits. She didn't care who exactly was to get to assist her as long as the work was done properly, but since she was young herself with her barely 25 years she kind of preferred having a young person do the job.

There were quite a lot of applicants. On her list she saw eight names, of which three she had already interviewed. One to go today, four more tomorrow. The first was pretty much of a cute guy, college student, she assumed. But she somehow didn't like his way of talking and his dirty glances towards her. Stupid kid, can't even drink legally and feels himself as Mr. Sexy.

The next was a middle-aged woman. She was way better than the college guy and behaved as if she really needed a job. She was taking everything really serious. Paige had read her file. Not getting a good education and being married with two children for years until her husband died, she was forced to apply for such a low-level job at her age. Paige felt sorry for this woman but she still wasn't sure whether to pick her or not. So she decided to just hear the others all out.

The next girl was perfect. She was 22 and her typing skills and whatever other skills you need as an assisting person were all really good and Paige felt quite comfortable with her, so she decided to pick her despite her thoughts that she should hear the others.

Phoebe was there a little early. She saw the girl, probably another applicant, walking into the office she was to go into soon. As she waited, she couldn't shake of the nervousness she already had the whole day. She just HAD to get this job. Not because of the money or because of what kind of job it is, cause this was certainly not a big one. But she really wanted to show her sisters that she was not the screw up Phoebe, the black sheep of the family anymore. She didn't want to see the "I told you so" face of Prue addressed to Piper and didn't want to disappoint Piper either.

As she saw the happy face of the same girl coming out of the office it dawned on her and her heart sank. She saw a reddish-blond -haired woman approaching her.

Paige saw another girl sitting on a chair waiting outside her office to be interviewed. As she opened her mouth to say that she had already made her decision the girl with the incredibly beautiful brown orbs cut her off.

"No, please, you can't do this I really and I mean REALLY want this job. NEED this job." Paige was used to these kinds of reactions so she wasn't surprised, but what did surprise her was the strong feeling of familiarity she felt deep inside of her towards the person in front of her. But this couldn't influence her choice. Besides, she didn't want to disappoint her now new assistant by possibly dismissing her right away.

"Hey, I'm really sorry but I've made my choice, I can't just take that back and…"

"Please, I'm begging you, I have to do this, I got two sisters I really don't want to disappoint cause I was a screw up for them my whole life and this is like my first chance to show them I can do it and, and if this doesn't go well I feel like I'm never going to make anything right, I'm just asking you to hear me out and if I'm not what you're looking for its okay I can accept it but please don't send me away like this, I…" It wasn't until her voice cracked that Phoebe realized she was rambling out everything and was slightly out of breath. She felt the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Honey, calm down. Take a deep breath, okay? That's it, calm down." Paige looked sympathetically at the upset girl standing in front of her on the verge of tears as she touched her shoulders with both hands. Man, she looks so young, how old is this kid? Paige thought to herself but remembered that there was actually an applicant aged 18. She wanted nothing more than to tell this young girl she felt so familiar to that she can start working right now but the job was technically already occupied.

"Look, I know how you feel and I hate to do this but…" Phoebe cut her off for the third time this day,

"No, no it's okay... I'm sorry I didn't mean to be so… obtrusive, I understand, I'm just gonna leave now and..." It was Phoebes turn to be cut off.

"Umm, I think you can interview her, Miss Matthiews, I mean I didn't want to tell you this yet but I actually got picked on several places more and was just trying to get a bigger chance to choose the job myself so.. I can just go to another place, you won't do any harm to me by firing me now. Besides, no offence but this is certainly not my favourite one I can choose." The 22 year-old smiled sheepishly at Paige as she spoke for the first time since Phoebe appeared. Turning to Phoebe, "you know, I was pretty much in the same situation as you, just not so young but still… I got sisters, too and I know the feeling of being the screw up so... anyway, I wish you good luck with the interview!" Phoebe smiled widely at her as the former assistant was on her way to leave.

"I don't know how to thank you! You just took a huge rock off my back, you know?"

"You can thank me by getting that job. Good bye Miss Matthiews and sorry again for using this for my plans."

"It's fine, your strategy is smart, really. So have fun whatever you're gonna work as. Bye."

"Thanks. Was nice meeting you. Bye."

"Ookay, so I guess it's your turn then." Paige said to Phoebe as she led her into her office. Phoebe smiled back at her all the nervousness gone. But as she looked in Paige's eyes she felt this strange but nice feeling though she couldn't really point it out. She realized this for the first time now for she was just too upset to see it before.

"Have a seat… Phoebe. "Paige said as she looked at the name on her list. 'Miss Halliwell' somehow didn't come out of her mouth. After the little outburst of Phoebe and feeling familiar to her anyway, it didn't seem appropriate. Paige knew she was going to hire this girl even without the interview anyway but she was now curious why she was so drawn to her.

"Thanks, Miss Matthiews." Phoebe sat down on one of the two chairs in front of the big wooden desk. The office was actually quite nice. There were loads of books in big wooden shelves and plants near the huge window, on the desk a computer and many, many papers and files. Phoebe realized that there were pictures on it, too. But she couldn't see them since she was in front of the desk.

"Please call me Paige. Now are you ready for the questioning?"

"Yeah. Otherwise I wouldn't be here." She smiled.

"Okay, first of all, ….have we met before?" Phoebe was a little stunned at this.

"Umm.. I don't think so." She answered though she couldn't shake off this feeling. She felt so..close…to her.

"Now next one…. are you really 18?" Again Phoebe was stunned at the strange question. She thought she was gonna be asked about her school papers since it wasn't really the best, though the marks were good but they do write it down when you get suspension. Besides, what kind of question was THAT?

"Uhh, yes?", came the quiet answer. Not sure what to say she looked uneasily at Paige, "Why?"

"Well, you just look so young, I'm sorry I'm just curious. So you're visiting college, right?"

"Yes. It's my first year."

"Do you think you can handle it? I mean, you know that school gets harder by the time and this job isn't exactly like working at a convenience store. Though that's hard, too in a way but you know I mean, don't you?" Paige asked though she had done same thing. She had started to work here although she was visiting college, only she was a little older than Phoebe now.

"Well yes. And I'm sure I'm up to it. As I said, I really want to make my sisters and… myself proud so I'll do any work you give me. And I think I can cope with the stress." Paige smiled at this. She saw the determination in her eyes. A stubborn one, for sure. She thought.

"Good. What's your major?"

"Psychology. I thought in this place you get to know many different people so maybe it would be interesting for me too."

"Yeah, you do need to work a lot with people. So.. you live with your family?"

"With my sisters, yeah."

"What about your parents?"

"I didn't write this in my application but.. well my mother died when I was two and that was also when my father walked away on my sisters and me. So we lived with our grandmother until she too passed away last year…" A single tear trickled down Phoebe's face as she talked about the loss she had experienced.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry!" Paige knew the pain this young girl must have felt or still did. She too lost her parents two years ago in a car accident. Though she knew she was adopted they were still the people who brought her up, who made her to the person she is now. Hence the two pictures on her desk. One of herself and her parents and the other…. of her real mother. Her parents gave it to her when they told her she was adopted. But losing one's mom at two was just plain cruel.

"It's okay. Sorry I didn't write it in my file, I didn't mean to hide it or anything but… I thought if I write it down they… this sounds strange I know and I know they're never gonna come back ever again but I thought that…. if I write it down it's like… accepting their deaths and… letting go and..so they'll never come back..I can't believe they all left me. What was I supposed to do without them? How could she leave it all to Prue to raise us? How could Dad just walk away like that? All I wanted was a normal family! I want the dreams about mom to stop but at the same time I'm afraid of them stopping, I'm scared of forgetting Mom's face completely, cause I'm already on my way to it, I just can't tell what she looked like exactly, I never could!" Phoebe didn't really want to talk about her parents and Grams but as she started she felt more and more tears running down her face, she just couldn't stop them, as much as she couldn't stop the words coming out of her mouth. Before putting her head in her hands she saw Paige approaching her, next thing she felt was a pair of warm arms gently pulling her in a hug. She let herself fall in the embrace and sank to the wooden floor with Paige. She didn't know why she did this, why she talked about it and why she showed her tears. She was usually pretty much in control in front of others, especially strangers. But Paige didn't feel like a stranger at all, even if they had just met. In fact the arms holding her felt like something she thought she had already forgotten for a long time. It reminded her of her mother's arms.

Paige saw the young girl with tears streaming down her face. It was like she acted out of pure instinct she got up and made her way to Phoebe. Kneeling down in front of her she drew her closer to her, sitting on the floor letting her cry into her chest. It was breaking her heart to hear the muffled sobs from the shaking body in her arms. God, why her? Why all the pain for this girl? Damit she is just a kid! She looked up thinking of how destiny could be so cruel to someone.

"Shhh honey, it's okay." Now she completely felt like a part of this girl. No way she is a stranger. I have to have some kind of connection to her. Paige thought to herself as she rocked the girl back and forth.

Phoebe felt so good where she was but at the same time the grief she thought she had long since buried came up again as she was too strongly reminded of her mom. So she just buried her face further into Paige. She couldn't get herself to calm down. She actually got more and more worked up. Paige realized this quickly.

"Hey! Hey, it's alright! Come on, you'll make yourself sick!" Paige said desperately trying to calm the girl, just rubbing her back.

"Sweetie you need to calm down. Come on, you're alright, it's alright, shh shh shh." Paige kept talking quietly into Phoebe's hair telling her to take deep breaths until she felt her beginning to relax slowly.

"There we go, it's okay now…… That's it honey, that's it….. Just relax……… I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you this much by my question…. Do you want me to call your sisters?" It wasn't until now that Paige saw that Phoebe had cried herself to sleep. Nope, Paige was no stranger, at least not anymore. Sighing, she just sat there with Phoebe thinking if she should just wake her or call her sisters. Until she heard the knock on her door.

Prue sat outside in her car patiently waiting for her youngest sister to finish the interview. She was curious if her baby girl would actually succeed in something like this. But as she waited for nearly two and a half hours she got out of the car and walked into the building. "Excuse me, my sister had an interview here about two hand a half hours ago and I'm wondering why she hasn't come out yet." The worker looked up at the woman with long dark hair and icy blue eyes, her voice and face carrying worry.

"Job interview? Then she should be at Miss Matthiews' office. It's second floor, first door on the right."

"Thank you." Prue made her way to the office as the man had described it. She knocked on the door.

Paige heard the knock and decided not to get up but ask who it is. If it wasn't important she was not gonna let him or her in.

"Who is it?" Prue found it a little strange that you get this asked in front of an office, but she shrug it off.

"Um, my name is Prue Halliwell. My sister was supposed to have an interview today and I was told that I would find her here."

"Oh, please come in, Miss Halliwell." Paige said, relief washing over her. She knew when Phoebe woke up, it was best to let her have one of her sisters here.

Prue entered the office but what she saw shocked her. There was Phoebe slumped on the floor, eyes closed with her head resting on the chest of a beautiful, young woman, probably close to her age, the owner of this office.

"Oh God, Pheebs! What the hell…" Prue was instantly kneeling on the ground next to Phoebe and Paige.

"Shhh! She just fell asleep. I'm sorry, I'm Paige Matthiews. Your sister's future boss, I guess." Not hearing or realizing that Phoebe was chosen for this job Prue looked at Paige not knowing what had happened while she wasn't there. But also seeing the love and kindness in Paige's eyes and feeling the same as Phoebe did before: she somehow felt close to her. Paige did likewise so she thought to herself it must be this family.

"Miss Matthiews, could you tell me now what's wrong with my sister?" Prue spoke in hushed tones as she sat down on the floor and gently took Phoebe from Paige she put her arms around her and let her rest her head on her chest. Just to assure herself that her baby was okay.

"You can call me Paige. It's good to see you, really. I was already gonna call you, Miss Halliwell."

"Well you can call me Prue as well. So now why was my sister who looked completely fine to me this morning and outside sleeping in the arms of someone she barely knows?" In spite of saying this, she knew somehow that Paige was not a bad person but actually made her believe that Phoebe had been in good care whatever happened to her.

"Well short version is we started this interview and I asked her about her family. First it was all right but she started crying and.. oh God I'm so sorry, it's kind of my fault, I shouldn't have asked her that knowing I would pick her anyway."

"Well you didn't know about our family. So it's not your fault. Wait, did you just tell me Phoebe has the job?" Seeing Paige nod Prue smiled. "Well done, Pheebs", she said quietly to her sleeping sister running her hand through her hair. So she had cried about her family. Wow this Paige must have been really nice to her if she opened up this much, Prue thought.

"Oh wait, she cried herself to sleep! Was it that bad?" Prue had already had experience with that due to the waking up of the youngest after some nightmares at midnight, sometimes she was totally out of control and inconsolable then.

"Yeah, I tried to calm her down but she would just get herself more and more worked up. I even thought she was gonna hyperventilate or something… She scared the crap out of me then." Paige talked to Prue. She felt like she was talking to some real old friend.

"Oh Phoebe." Prue looked down to Phoebe sympathetically, brushing away a stray piece of hair from her face. "Paige, thank you very much for taking care of her. But maybe we should get up now, my butt's freezing" Prue grinned at Paige. She too felt like talking to a friend she knew like forever.

"Okay, but… "She looked at the sleeping form in Prue's arms.

"Oh, that's okay, I'm gonna wake her and let her sleep in the car if she wants to. I have to be at Quake soon anyway, my other sister works there and we're supposed to have dinner there later."  
"Oh really? I love Quake, actually I'm there pretty often."

"Yeah? So maybe we'll see each other quite soon then."

"I guess, yeah."

Prue now tried to wake Phoebe. She shook her gently as she watched her stir. "Uhh.. Prue?"

"Hi sleepyhead." She softly greeted her youngest sibling. "I'm sorry I have to wake you but we have to go to Piper now. You can sleep in my car, okay?" Prue coaxed until Phoebe slowly got up with her resting her head on her big sis' shoulder. As Phoebe recognized the other person standing next to them and seeing the surroundings, she started to remember the day's events.

"Oh, man, Paige. I'm sorry I didn't mean to get out of control like that. I must have caused you trouble, haven't I?" She said putting a hand on her forehead.

"No, no it's completely fine. You can always talk to me if something's bothering you cause from tomorrow on we'll see each other like every day." Phoebe looked surprised at this.

"So I have the job?" Seeing Paige nod with a smile, she squealed in delight and hugged Paige tightly. "Wow, easy kiddo, you don't wanna squeeze your boss and suffocate her, do ya?" Prue said as she too grinned at the two.

"So see you tomorrow then. Bye!"

"yeah and it was nice meeting you Paige, maybe we can have lunch together sometime." Prue said as they both went to leave the office.

On the drive to Quake the emotions of both sisters were mixed. Phoebe was really happy that she was hired. Still, she couldn't believe she lost it like that. She was still a bit tired of all the crying so she leaned against the window and watched as they drove through San Francisco, hearing the calming sound of the rain splashing on the front window.

"You ok, Phoebe?" Prue asked as she watched her sister just starring at the passing cars. She wasn't sure what to talk about. Should she talk to her about what happened in the office or just let her be. But Phoebe opened up first.

"Yeah, thanks. I just can't believe I lost it like that. I mean, I thought I was in control in front of others since a long time. I shouldn't have done that."

"No it's alright Pheebs. If you feel like crying you should do it. It's okay, you know? It's totally fine. Maybe your head wants to keep everything under control but sometimes your heart needs to let go. Don't try to bottle everything in." Prue said putting a comforting hand on her sister's knee. "Okay." Was the silent answer from the youngest.

"Phoebe…. The job, you know I'm…. I'm proud of you." Prue said clumsily. She was never good at showing her feelings towards her sisters. Especially the youngest. She practically raised her so she had had to be the authority figure. And it was a long time ago that she praised Phoebe. Phoebe was therefore surprised to hear that from her oldest sister but decided to simply accept the praise with open arms and just be happy about it.

"Thanks." Phoebe smiled at Prue as she smiled back. She had achieved what she wanted. She had made her sister proud. That was the first step. Now she just had to keep going, vowing herself never to screw up again.

"Um, Prue?"

"Yes Pheebs?"

"Paige is a nice person, isn't she?" Phoebe thought back and remembered just how close she felt to her new boss.

"Yeah she is. There's something about her I can't put the finger on it but she is kind of different."

"You think so, too? You know when I… um… you know, started crying and she came up to me hand comforted me it was like… it felt strangely familiar. It was a bit like… uhh…" Phoebe didn't know if she could say this in front of Prue but as she trailed off Prue urged her to go on. "Like what, hun?"

"Like… like Mom." There. She had said it. She was ready for whatever reaction she thought Prue would show, be it yelling at her or laughing at her that that was just ridiculous.

"Well, I think I understand you in a way. I felt it, too. Well not exactly Mom but there was certainly something as if I knew her already for a long time." At this Phoebe was stunned for she never thought Prue would just accept what she had just said.

"Really? That's weird isn't it? So there might be some kind of connection between us, right?"

"I don't know, Pheebs. But since you are going to work with her maybe you'll figure it out."

Prue said as she pulled up on the parking lot at Quake.

Piper had already told her boss that she would be off of work this evening. It was 8 o'clock, her sisters should be here any minute. She was working as an assistant cook but intended to become the chief cook sometime. With her 22 years she was one of the youngest cooks at Quake. But her skills were so good she actually got to play the chief role quite a lot of times.

Seeing her sisters walk through the entrance she quickly got changed out of her work clothes into her usual. She approached her sisters who were now sitting at the bar drinking their drinks and talking.

"Hey you two." She greeted as she sat down next to Phoebe and ordering herself a glass of water.

"Now, how was your interview? Did you get the job?"

"Yeah, I did." Phoebe answered the second part of the question. To be honest she didn't know how to answer the first. But she wanted to tell Piper everything. Especially how she felt about Paige. But for now she just answered the second part.

"Wow, congratulations Pheebs! I knew you were gonna make it." She shot Prue a triumphant 'I told you so' look. "So were you nervous? What's your boss like? And when are you starting there?" Piper asked excitedly. "Slow down, Pipe." Phoebe laughed. "First, I'm starting tomorrow right away after school and yes, I was nervous but it was fine because, this is gonna answer the third, my boss was really really nice, I mean she even…." Phoebe didn't exactly know how to continue. Seeing this, Piper got curious. "She what, Phoebe?" Phoebe sighed and slowly began to tell Piper the day's events. Plus the feeling both Prue and Phoebe felt towards Paige. Piper looked sympathetically at Phoebe while she told her everything. But hearing the part with Paige made her curious again.

"So you think she has some strange connection to you? Or maybe us?"

"Yeah, I know it sounds crazy but it was just too weird. You should have seen her eyes. It was like something just clicked, it actually felt like that girl was hidden somewhere in my memories or something." Prue told her little sister. "Oh yeah she actually told me she would come here quite often. Maybe you've seen her already." Prue added.

"I'm a cook Prue, not a waitress. I don't see the guests unless they complain about my meal. Not that that would ever happen."

"Maybe I can find out more at work tomorrow." Phoebe said. So the girls left it for now and began ordering their dinner.

Next day after college Phoebe went to work the first time. She was excited as what was to come. But she was more excited of seeing Paige because she just HAD to figure out everything.

Standing in front of the office door she breathed in and out once. Knocking and hearing the answer she stepped in.

Paige was sitting at her desk typing something on her computer. Seeing Phoebe she stopped and walked up to her. "Hi. Welcome to the first day as my assistant! How was school?" Paige asked. 'How was school?' She chuckled to herself. She actually didn't expect to be in a position to ask this. Never had she thought that she would hire an 18 year-old. As she thought about it the last night, she came to the conclusion that this assistant job was harder than she had first expected it as she went through the list of the cases. 'Oh this isn't going to be just arranging files and answering phone calls. I hope she can really handle it.' She thought.

"School was okay, thanks. So.. what do you want me to do?" Phoebe asked as she looked up to Paige. She was a few inches taller than her but that wasn't really hard since she wasn't really a tall girl. She wasn't too small but there were lots of girls who were slightly taller than her. But she looked young for her age anyway. Hence the question 'are you really 18?', she figured. Paige was wearing a dark blue jeans and a black roll neck. Phoebe liked this about social workers. They didn't have to wear the super neat clothing or suits all the time. Not that she didn't like suits but she thought wearing them all day couldn't be too comfortable.

"I'll show you your desk. Come on." Paige led Phoebe to the small room right next to her office. It was actually just separated by a glass door. There was a desk with a PC on it and also lots of files. "I have my own room like... office?" Phoebe asked in a surprised way as she didn't expect this. "Well, you'll get to type a lot, so you need a PC. And I have to tell you that with the amount of cases I have now it'll be a bit more work than the usual assistant's job. Seems like this won't be as easy as it sounded before. Will you be okay with that?"

"Sure I will. Anything." Phoebe said with determination in her eyes. Paige was convinced Phoebe would handle it. She didn't worry anymore that this girl was practically just out of high school.

"Okay, I know you're new at this but there's lots of work to do so.." Paige handed Phoebe a file which had been lying on her desk, "read this file closely. I want you to be informed about what the family is like and what kind of perspectives there are to solve the problems. I'm visiting this family tomorrow to look at them myself and I wanted to take you with me. So the more you are informed the better. Okay?"

"Alright. I will be sitting here reading it if you need me." Phoebe said. 'Wow, I actually get to meet the clients directly on my second day of work. I really owe that girl one.' She thought remembering the other applicant who would actually be standing here instead of her.

So Phoebe made her way to the black leather chair on her desk and sat down with the file. This room was also well illuminated due to the huge windows. Phoebe opened the thick file and started to read… After an hour the basic facts were clear. The family just recently lost their husband and father who was the only one with an income. He left four children aged 13, 10, 5 and 3 and a mother with severe drinking problems. The father was quite a rich man and there was still a pretty big sum left for keeping 5 people alive, just the living conditions wouldn't be too good. The mother was in treatment and claimed to be able to raise her children. Plus they could even afford a babysitter for daytime. Just as the nights came the neighbours claimed to hear lots of screaming and crying coming from their next door. Children do scream but they said that it didn't sound like just some upset kids. So if the mother was really beating her children they would definitely have to go to a foster home.

Phoebe was already completely absorbed in the case. She felt really sorry for the kids. She wouldn't be able to cope if she was separated from her sisters but foster homes were certainly connected with that and it looked like there was a good chance that what the neighbours assumed was true. She looked up on the internet what kind of hostels the listed ones were, searching if they had someone asking to adopt four children. It looked bad though. Plus the research was kind of hard, too. She tried to find out what other alternatives there were but she couldn't really find any. It wasn't until she saw Paige coming in that she realized she had sat there for four and a half hours, the sky was already dark so she could see her own and Paige's reflection on the big windows.

"Hey, I see you're working hard." Paige smiled. She was impressed. This girl hadn't come out once of her office, not even to get herself something to drink. As she realized that it was already nine, she finished her own work for now and decided to check on her new co-worker.

As she saw Phoebe completely engrossed in the file in her one hand, in the other the mouse of her computer with little notes everywhere on her desk, Paige nodded in impression. 'Guess I just made the right choice with her.' She thought. There was nothing better than someone with motivation and eagerness.

Phoebe looked up to Paige as she handed her a cup of tea.

"Oh thanks." Phoebe took the cup but seeing the clock her eyes got wide, "oh man, it's nine already! Wow I didn't realize it at all. When do you close here?" Phoebe asked.

"Basically we don't have fixed times, not since I got keys, anyway so I can stay as long as I want to." She answered, sitting down on the second chair with wheels, rolling over next to Phoebe. "So you read the whole file? And I can see you checked up some stuff, too." Paige said as she saw the notes.

"Yeah, I was kind of trying to find other ways to deal with this, but wasn't really successful I guess." Phoebe said while trying to suppress a yawn.

"That's not very easy, you know? But let's just see what tomorrow will show us and if it's really necessary to send the kids away. Right now you need to go home and get some sleep, you're tired. I'll give you a lift home if you want?" Paige said getting up from the chair.

"Oh that'd be great. Thank you."

They both got in Paige's car and drove off. Phoebe didn't really find out more about Paige but it was okay, she thought. She had lots and lots of time to do that. Right now her thoughts were with that family, anyway.

As Paige was driving she recalled the interview with Phoebe. How it felt so familiar to comfort her. She wanted to know why but she too thought she had a lot of time for that.

The warm heater of the car and the calming sound of the engine weren't doing good to Phoebe as she fought to keep her eyes open. She could never stay awake in moving cars, not when she was tired and not when she wasn't the one driving. "Close your eyes honey. I'll wake you when we're there. I know where Prescott Street is." Paige said gently seeing the girl fighting sleep, "what's the number?" "1329." With that, Phoebe was out.

"We're here sweetie, wake up." Paige said quietly and gently shaking Phoebe.

She was totally exhausted and wasn't noticing the car stopping. But as she heard the gentle voice she slowly opened her eyes looking into Paige's face. What came next was completely unexpected. Suddenly Phoebe got what seemed like a flashback or something, in black and white, it was just a split second but she could clearly make out a face of a girl, probably 16 or 17 but not more, saying exactly the same 'we're here sweetie, wake up'. A girl looking like a younger version of Paige. As the flashback ended, Phoebe sucked in a breath.

"Phoebe? You alright?"

"Huh?..yeah, …yeah I'm okay." 'What the hell was that?' She wondered. It was like a lost memory coming back. "You're sure? You don't look good. Come on, I'll take you to the front door." With that, Paige guided her out of the car to the front door of the old Victorian manor.

As she walked up to the big wooden door with Phoebe at her side Paige was again washed over with this strange feeling. 'Was I here before? No that can't be. But why does this seem to be like a killer déjà vu? I swear there is something about this family.' She thought.

"Thanks for the lift Paige. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, maybe there is something we can help with. So, good night then." Phoebe just wanted to let herself fall into her bed, she was tired but most of all confused. Confused of what had just happened. Was it really possible that she knew Paige? Cause the girl her mind remembered was definitely her. Younger, but her. She didn't want to deal with it right now. All she wanted to do was sleep.

"Okay Phoebe. Good night, I'll see you tomorrow, sleep well." Paige said as she walked back to her car.

Piper heard the front door open and close. Her little sister was home. Prue told her she would be late because she had a late meeting and dinner with her colleagues at 415 so she wouldn't be home before midnight. It was ten o'clock now so this had to be Phoebe.

"Hey Pheebs, you're quite late. How was your day at work?" Piper asked as she came out of the kitchen with a towel in her hands.

"Oh work was good. I really like it there. Seems like I get to do more than first expected. Like tomorrow we're going to the house of a client." Phoebe said as she was on her way to the stairs. She didn't want to tell her sister of her little flashback outside yet.

"Sounds interesting. So Pheebs do you want anything to eat? Or a hot chocolate or something? I can make you some." Piper asked since she wanted to wait for Prue to talk about some expenses they had and which couldn't wait. So she wished to have some company.

"Thanks a lot Pipe but right now I just wanna go to bed, okay? See you in the morning?"

"Yeah, alright." Piper said a little disappointed, but then she saw something in her sister's features, not just tiredness. "Hey, is everything okay hun?" She asked a little concerned.

"Mmh, just tired." Phoebe smiled at her older sister so she could hide her confusion and stop her worrying.

The next morning Phoebe sat with both her sisters in the kitchen eating breakfast.

"I'm glad you like the work Pheebs. But don't overdo it, okay? Remember you go to college as well and when it gets too hard you should take brakes. Okay?" Prue said to Phoebe firmly.

"Ya, ya Prue, I know. But I can't help myself I didn't see the time passing yesterday."

"Did Paige bring you home?" Phoebe nodded. "Did you… find out anything?" Prue asked feeling slightly stupid for believing in hidden connections or something but it was just too much of a strange feeling with Paige. "Umm, no but I was gonna ask is it okay if I invite her to dinner sometime? Maybe we can all have a nice talk and maybe something comes out." Phoebe said. She did suspect something though. She knew that's not possible but she still couldn't think otherwise… she knew Paige. She had known her already, before the interview.

'Now you're being paranoid, Phoebe', the sanity in her head spoke. "Sure, why not, I mean I didn't even get to know her. So that would be a good opportunity." Piper agreed.

Phoebe sat in class only half listening to what the professor was saying. "Hey Phoebe, you okay? You look kind of absent-minded." She looked up to the voice. "Oh, I'm fine, thanks for asking though Zach. Just had a rough night." She smiled at him. Zach was a really good friend she knew already from high school. But not her boyfriend or anything. He was like one of her best friends. With Rob, Jane and Ashley who she knew from high school as well, they were always hanging out somewhere. But Zach was the only one in Psychology with her.

As the class finished the students started to get up and the crowd disappeared to the halls. "Umm, Zach, could you give this to Ash, please? She paid the cab for me last time on the way home from Jordan's party." She handed her friend the money. "I'll get out of here earlier today so I can't have lunch with you guys but I'll see you tomorrow again, ok?" "Okay then, see ya!" He went out of the auditorium. The professor was still there wiping the board. "Mr. Cortez? I wanted to ask you something.." The dark haired rather young professor turned around facing her. "Yes uh, Phoebe, right? What is it?"

"Well I was gonna ask.. is it possible for people to..to forget something and burry it so long until something happens and they suddenly remember?" The professor looked at her. "Yes, Phoebe, there are lots of people having that. But that's usually the case when they experience a trauma, so it comes back in form of flashbacks or nightmares. There are more people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorders than one might think."

"Okay but is it possible to forget a whole… person? ...Or like a whole passage of life?"

"I don't know any of that, except for maybe amnesiacs but when you're young and physically healthy I don't think it occurs."

"Thanks, Professor." Phoebe answered and walked out. 'Post traumatic stress? No, never. That's not it.' She went out of the building to the bus station. 'Man, I need a car why do Prue and Piper both have one and it's me again the money isn't enough for.' She pouted inside.

Paige saw the door open and Phoebe coming in. It was still early today so she decided to order lunch and eat it in the office with Phoebe. "Hey. You're early. But you look way better than last night. Good thing to sleep, isn't it?" Phoebe laughed at this, also thinking that that wasn't hard to look better than yesterday as she felt totally wiped after the flash thingy. "I ordered us some lunch. Are you hungry?" Paige asked as she got up and placed a chair next to hers further behind the desk where a small table was standing.

"Starving." She smiled.

As they sat there eating Phoebe was the first to speak. "So, are we going to the Rosman's house today?"

"Yeah, as soon as we finish eating we can go." Paige looked at the young girl. She looked so innocent. Was she really supposed to do this? Show her this world? Sure she had a cruel past as well but she'd surely never seen a mother looking at her children without any love at all. Paige had seen the cold stare of some parents already several times and each time it had sent shivers down her spine. "Phoebe, I tell you one thing. What you're gonna see might not be very pretty. I'm sure you know that but I just wanna make sure. Are you really up to it? It's okay if you want to stay here. There are still other, more harmless cases too, you know?"

"No please let me go with you. I know the hard part of life already. I've already read the file. I'm too in it to just stop now. I'll be okay, I promise." She said firmly. "Okay." Paige's answer was a little more than a whisper.

They arrived at Rosman's. The house was big. Not huge but pretty big. 'They're probably gonna have to sell this house.' Paige thought. The last check up on this family was already three weeks ago. So Paige wondered if everything would be as it should be. She stepped on the stairs now standing right in front of the door. Shooting Phoebe a quick glance to make sure she was ready, she rang the doorbell. After ringing a second time since no one answered, a small boy opened the door. That must be the 10 year-old. "Hi. Are you Matthiew Rosman?" He nodded shyly. Paige smiled at him nicely in spite of seeing the state he was in. He was skinny, had a dirty face and short, messed blond hair. His blue sweater had brown stains on it in fact it looked like dried blood. Due to his light hair you could see the nasty gash on the side of his head. It seemed to be older though. "I'm Paige and this is Phoebe." Despite the sight Phoebe smiled at the boy too and knelt down to his eye level. "Hi. Nice to meet you." Matthiew instantly liked the two women. "Hi." He answered shyly. "We wanted to talk to your Mom today, can we?" Paige asked. "Um, Mom's not here."

"She is too! She's just funny again!" A high voice rang out. Reaching the door Paige and Phoebe saw another, smaller boy running towards them. "Eric! You're not supposed to say that!" Matthiew hissed at his younger brother. Phoebe and Paige looked at each other. "Okay, honey, can we go in?", Paige tried. "I'm sorry I'm not allowed to let strangers in." He said sadly looking to the ground. It was then they heard the third voice. "Matthiew, who is it?" They saw a girl approach. She had long brown hair and a beautiful face but the bags under her eyes were clearly visible. She was carrying a small, sleeping girl in her arms. The oldest and youngest. Phoebe thought. "Can I help you?" She asked in a low voice. This time Phoebe spoke up. "We were supposed to meet your mom today. Can we come in, please?" The 13 year-old looked up at Phoebe. She somehow trusted these two. Sighing, she stepped away from the door so both could step in. Though the house itself was big the state it was in was miserable. There were empty bottles on the floor and next to the sink. Old dishes were on the table and in the sink, the smell of alcohol stinging in the nose. "Seems like we have guests, huh?" A woman approached. The mother. She was dressed in PJs and a robe over it, her hair messy and her face tired, but her misty grey-green eyes where what Phoebe saw first. Completely lifeless, cold, dead. "I thought I told you not to open the door, Annie."

She glared at her eldest daughter with so much venom in her voice and eyes Phoebe nearly flinched. "No mom it was me who opened it." Said Matthiew. "I DON'T CARE WHO DID IT! I SAID DON'T OPEN THE DOOR! DO I STUTTER OR ARE YOU JUST DUMB!" With that, the mother grabbed the collar of the young boy and threw him to the ground. With tears in his eyes, he ran upstairs.

At this, Phoebe jumped. She had never heard a mother speak to her children like this. Let alone throw him to the ground. And her voice was so full of anger, full of .. hatred. The youngest woke up from the sound and started bawling. The oldest started rocking the toddler in her arms trying to calm her despite her own tears. Paige stepped between the kids and the mother "Mrs. Rosman! There is no need to yell at your children! We are social workers and you actually have an appointment with us right now. So would you please calm down, we need to talk about you and your family. Even though with what you showed right now I wouldn't need a talk to find out what's happening here." She looked towards Phoebe who hadn't said a word yet. She was just starring at the mother. She always thought that no matter how hard the circumstances would be, a mother would always love her children. But here there was nothing of love. Absolutely NOTHING. She felt a hand on her back and realized Paige was looking into her face.

"Phoebe? Sweetie go upstairs with the kids and keep them there, okay? Keep them entertained. Can you do that honey?" Paige said in a gentle, calm voice. This was exactly what she meant earlier today. She had to distract Phoebe somehow, give her a task. She needed her to stay strong now.

"Huh? The kids…? …Oh yeah, the kids, sure… sure." Phoebe said coming out of her trance.

She sat with the kids talking and playing for about an hour. She realized how shy and scared the kids seemed to be at just slight touches. Whenever she made a movement with her hand the little ones flinched. But seeing as nothing happened they were smiling again. She didn't miss the overprotectiveness of the oldest either. Somehow she reminded her of Prue as she sat there with her arms around the youngest on her lap. She felt so bad for them. It was so ironic. They had a mom, something she never had, but while she seemed so close, she was at the same time so far away. Never coming back. Maybe it was better to have no mom than one without feeling. I mean how can it be right to have to protect your sisters and brothers from their own Mom?

After another half an hour Paige came walking up the stairs. "Hey kids. Having fun?" She smiled as she approached them. "Hey, are you counting me in?" Phoebe said acting offended. Her shock of what happened pushed inside, the kids needed her to remain calm.

"'Course I do." Paige said grinning. But her face got serious again as she was about to tell them the news. More to the oldest than the other. "Okay listen, I saw the state your mother is in. Just as I saw this house. I thought that maybe things were starting to work but I see no chance there anymore. You can't go on like this. And you know that yourself, I can see that. I talked to my co-workers. They called the court and they are gonna separate you from your mother. Don't be scared, I arranged a hostel where all of you can stay together. They will take good care of you. There are pretty good conditions. They will only be ready to give you for adoption if you are all together and if you're okay with it of course. It will definitely be better than this place." The oldest looked relieved somehow. "Thank you. Thank you I knew my mother was out of control already for long and I didn't know if I could protect my sister and brothers for longer. The main thing is we can stay together." She said looking at her siblings. "I'm sorry we haven't done this earlier already. We really thought it would work out. The hostel's worker should be here soon to pick you up. Your mother will be put into hospital for now. We'll stay until they arrive."

As everyone was gone it was time for Paige and Phoebe to drive back. The cool winter air was brushing at their skin as they walked up to the car. The sun was already setting. Phoebe still couldn't forget the voice of the mother, the cold glare, the fast breaths as she threw the boy. The fear in his clouded eyes, the loud bawling of the youngest and the concerned but possibly irreparably hurt eyes of the oldest. The blood stains on the boy's sweater, the possible cause of it, the gash on his head. The constant pulling back, flinching whenever she would move her arms. The shattered childhood. All caused by the person who should be the one making everything all right again.

Paige sat down in the car seat as did Phoebe. She looked over to her when she wanted to start the engine but the look in Phoebe's eyes stopped her. She turned to her grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Phoebe? Phoebe, look at me. Look at me." Phoebe turned to the source of the voice and was greeted by Paige's eyes. "Honey don't let it inside. Just don't let it in. Stop thinking about it. We can't change the world. It's the way it is but you can't start thinking about it. It'll eat you up." Phoebe looked at Paige in disbelief. "But.."

"No honey, no. You know the way psychiatrists deal with their patients' problems? They learn not to let it inside. They get therapy themselves before getting to talk to their own patients. It's the same here. We've got many cruel cases, too. So we can't be letting everything in. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Paige looked directly into Phoebe's eyes.

She nodded. Letting out a small sigh, Paige let go of Phoebe's shoulders.

"Look, I want you to talk to your sisters about it. Let them know where you've been what you saw and tell them how you felt, okay?"

"A..alright."

Arriving at the manor Phoebe got out of the car. Paige rolled the window down and called after her, "Remember what I said, Phoebe. Talk to them." With that, she drove off.

The door to the Halliwell Manor opened. Phoebe walked in her head still full of the new images she had seen. The thoughts about how to figure out the Paige thingy were completely gone for now.

"Phoebe. Good timing. Dinner's just ready."

"Okay Pipe I'll just change in some more comfy things and then I'll come down, okay?"

"Yeah hurry though Prue's already waiting impatiently at the table." Piper said chuckling.

The last thing Phoebe wanted to do was eat. She felt sick to her stomach as the scenes from earlier played through her mind over and over again. She quickly changed, walked down the stairs and sat down next to Piper and across to Prue. As they ate, she thought about what Paige had said about talking to her older sisters. But by telling them she didn't want them to think that she couldn't handle it, that it was too much for her or something like that. Because as cruel as it was, she wanted to continue. She didn't want to shut her eyes from reality.

"So squirt, how was your day? You said something about working out of town?" Prue asked unintentionally giving Phoebe the chance to open up.

"Um, yeah it was okay. A little tiring maybe." She said quietly picking on her food with the fork, what she had basically done the last few minutes without really eating.

"Pheebs are you feeling alright? I mean you didn't really eat a lot and the food tastes normal to you, Prue, right?" Piper asked concerned. "It's perfect, honey." She answered as she looked up to face Phoebe. "I feel fine, don't look at me like that." She said harsher than intended. "Then what's wrong? Did something happen at work?" Full score, Piper. Phoebe thought, deciding for herself to open up. She let out a sarcastic laugh.

"You could say that." Phoebe began telling her story. While doing so, she kept looking at her still full plate the whole time. She didn't pause she wanted to get it off in one go. By the time she finished she realized that she had tears rolling down her cheek and her sisters were each sitting on her side, Prue's arm around her shoulder, Piper's hand gently rubbing the back of her neck. "God I was so scared. These eyes.. the mother's eyes they were…" Her voice cracked once more. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry you had to see that all." Prue said gently pulling Phoebe's head to her shoulder. Piper was holding her hand, stroking the back of it with her thumb. "The world is so dirty. There are so bad people, destroying everything." Phoebe said a little above a whisper. Prue exchanged glances with Piper and then looked at the youngest again. Phoebe had said that more than just once as they were growing up. Despite her bright, carefree and sunny person, always laughing and enjoying life, there were some things she took really seriously. Whenever she watched the news or documentaries showing war scenes, crime scenes or in general people getting killed, she used to say the same. The first time she said it was when she was about eight, when they watched a documentary about the concentration camps in school. She would climb on to Prue's lap and with sad eyes stated how bad people could be. Prue was furious then at the teacher who let the kids watch something like that at such a young age. She quickly recognized the signs that if she didn't talk about it with this kid, she would slip into the 'the world is bad' attitude and never come out of it. So she had told her about the same thing she was gonna tell the 18 year-old now. She pulled the girl onto her lap, cupped her face in her hands to make her face her and firmly spoke, "Phoebe listen. Not everyone is bad. Don't think that the whole world is dirty. Sure, everyone has the potential to be or act evil or bad. But the majority can fight it. Don't ever think that what you saw today or what you see on TV, read in the newspaper or however you witness it, is normal. Don't ever generalize it. So when you think of human beings, think of people like Grams, who did everything to bring us up, people like…" she paused for a second, she usually didn't talk about her, "… like Mom, who was the person with the biggest heart one could have. Think of your friends, Zach, Robbie, Ashley, Jane, they are always there for you when you need them, right? And even the social workers, they help people, don't they?" Phoebe nodded. "See? There are so many good people in the world you don't know who to turn to." She said with a smile across her face, playfully ruffling Phoebe's hair. "Prue? Piper?"

"What, hun?" They both looked at her. "I'll turn to you. When I think of people I'll think of you. You who sacrificed your own childhood or youth just to raise me. You who always were and are at my side when I need you. You're my sisters. And I love you more than anything." Phoebe said hugging both her sisters. "We love you too sweetie, we wouldn't swap our childhood for anything. We love you too." The sisters remained in a three way hug.

The next weeks went fine for Phoebe. The cases they had were relaxing compared to the first one and she liked her work in her office as well. But she still hadn't figured out why Paige triggered this warm feeling every time she looked in her hazel brown eyes. She even had dinner at home with her several times and introduced her to Piper. They got on really well but as she asked Piper later, she too told her about the overly familiar feeling she got when she saw Paige.

Today in college they had talked about a study where twins behaved or talked the same way or liked exactly the same things even if they've never known each other before. There was a hidden connection, too. 'Now you're being stupid Phoebe. How can I compare my situation to that of twins?' She thought to herself.

"Phoebe? Can you come in here, please?" She heard Paige call her from her office.

"Yeah?" She approached Paige who was sitting on the chair behind the desk. She ushered her to the PC screen.

"I have to give this report to the court tomorrow. Could you read it through just to make sure everything's as it was and I didn't forget anything? Two heads are better than one."

"Sure. Will I print it once I think it's okay?"

"That'd be good, thanks. Anderson wants to talk to me so I'll be back in I don't know how many minutes or hours. Depends on what he wants to talk about." She said wondering what her boss might want but assuming it didn't seem to be that important.

Phoebe sat at the computer reading what Paige had written. As she looked away from the screen when she finished she saw a photo with three people on it. A picture of father, mother and child. The figure in the middle made Phoebe to hold her breath. The girl looked about 16 to 17. She looked like a younger version of Paige. Of course, because it was Paige. She had seen this face before. In the car. The first day of work when Phoebe was woken up by Paige, when they arrived at the manor. The flashback. Confusion spread on Phoebe's face.

"My parents." She looked up seeing Paige standing in the doorway. She saw her approaching.

"They died in a car accident two years ago. We took that one when I was 16." She was now standing next to Phoebe looking at the picture in the girl's hands.

"I'm sorry Paige." She said though still confused. "Oh and I'm sorry I didn't mean to be so curious but I saw the picture and.. " She was cut off by her boss as she quickly put the picture down where she had found it.

"No, it's okay. Actually they are not my real parents. I was adopted. I was told so right from the beginning. But I still loved them as I would love real parents." Paige paused for a moment. "And this is my real mother. It's the only picture I have of her." She removed the thick files which covered the sight to the next picture and took it in her hand, handing it to Phoebe.

What Phoebe saw next knocked the air out of her. She felt her knees get weak so she had to sit down again. There on the picture in her hands was the for her most beautiful woman in the world, the face she saw at night while sleeping, the face she was scared to forget, smiling at her. It was the face she missed on her first day at school, the face of the one she wanted to be praised by whenever she had a good mark, yelled at for being so late home, comforted by when she was hurt or sick, or when she cried after braking up with a boyfriend. It was the smiling face of…

"Mom…" Phoebe said her voice barely audible.

"What?" Paige asked silently as she couldn't exactly make out what she had said. And as what she thought she had heard couldn't have been right.

Phoebe looked up at Paige. Her hands were trembling her breathing shallow. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. So she shut it and opened it again, this time her voice with it.

"What….why..this picture…..how…why…" Phoebe desperately tried to form a proper sentence but there were so many questions in her head and as everything got too much for her she put the picture down and ran out of the office, despite her shaky knees.

"Phoebe! Where're you goin'? Phoebe!" Paige shouted and after a minute to let it sink in she ran after her.

Phoebe didn't know where she was running. Her head felt like it was going to explode. She had heard right. Paige said it was her real mother. But it was her mom. There was no doubt. No matter what, she would recognize her own mother's face, even if she didn't get to see it a lot.

When she stopped after what seemed like an eternity she saw that she actually didn't come that far. She sat on the bench of the park not far from the social service's building.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." She repeated just above a whisper over and over again. She put her head into her palms as she felt the tears come. Tears of shock, of confusion. The inner battle she had was giving her extreme headache. Was that why she felt so familiar to Paige? Why she allowed herself to brake down crying in her arms? Why she felt so safe with her and why she was reminded of her mother when she was held by her? Was that because her mom was also Paige's mom, because Paige was….. her sister?

But the other side in her screamed that it couldn't be, this wasn't possible. Her mother would have said something if they had another sister, right? And the weirdest thing was the flashback she had. It showed a grown up Paige. Well a grown up like 16. THAT couldn't be right, she grew up with grams, Prue and Piper. No Paige, no Paige. There were Grams, Prue, and Piper. There was NO Paige.

She jumped as she felt a hand on her back. Through her blurred vision she could make out Paige sitting next to her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay?" Paige asked.

"Do I LOOK OKAY?" Phoebe shouted as she jumped up from the bench startling Paige. She sat down again as she tried to calm herself.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. I'm just so… "

"It's okay, Phoebe. I know you're upset. So am I. I mean first I thought I didn't hear right at what you said but after seeing your reaction I kinda thought it must've been right. So here I am, as confused as you are. You did say 'Mom' then, right?" Paige looked into Phoebes tear stained face not really believing herself.

"Yeah I did." Her voice was hoarse. "Who you claim to be your mom, is apparently my mom. And I'm sure of that it wasn't my mistake I would always recognize the face. And… I haven't told you this but… When we met I felt so…familiar, so close to you, not just me, Prue and Piper felt it, too." Phoebe stopped, she wasn't sure if she could tell Paige what was to come next but she decided for it, "and remember my first day at work, when you brought me home? I fell asleep in the car and you had to wake me up. I got something like a flashback then. It was all black and white but I saw…. the same you like on the picture on your desk telling me to wake up and then it ended. I know it sounds ridiculous and crazy but I did, I'm not lying." Phoebe said the last part in one breath.

"It's okay, I believe you. In fact I felt the same all the time, as if I knew you guys. You, Piper, Prue. The same day, meaning when I brought you home and was standing in front of your door, it was like a déjà vu or something. I felt it, too." There was a short silence. Phoebe broke it.

"O.. okay. Let's suppose it's true that your Mom's also my Mom, which would basically make you to my…" Phoebe paused for a moment still not completely believing what was going on now, "sister, why…. I mean how is it possible that you, me, Prue and Piper feel like having known each other for a long time? I accept that you feel kinda connected between siblings but it wasn't just that, right? I mean you felt it, too, like déjà vus washing over us. My flashback I got, you were definitely 16 or something, so…" She felt her confusing turning into frustration fresh tears rolling down her cheek, "did we grow up together? Have I already known you when we met? It can't be." She put her head back into her hands again. Paige saw this and even though she was totally confused herself she decided to remain calm, well at least calmer than you should be in this case, and put an arm around Phoebe's shoulders.

"Hey, it's alright. We'll figure this out. But before we do anything we should talk to your… sisters about it and then we'll see, okay?" She said gently. She was already thinking about if the term 'your sisters' was right but she didn't want to upset Phoebe more in saying something like 'our sisters'. Besides she wanted to have a clear proof. She had to take the Halliwells or at least one of them to the doctor's with her so they could find out whether they were really related. But for now she wanted to talk to Prue and Piper, and above all she wanted to get Phoebe home, let her relax a bit. She figured that this girl was pretty hard to calm down once she got upset.

"So are your sisters home?" Paige asked.

"I don't think so. Piper should be at Quake and Prue has a photo shoot or something. They should be home soon though. In about two hours or something." She replied.

"Okay then. Let's go." Paige got up and pulled Phoebe with her. "We don't have much work left for today, anyway so why don't we grab our stuff and go to your place and wait there?"

"Yeah, we should do that."

Pulling up at the driveway of 1329 Prescott Paige followed Phoebe to the steps. She looked up at the house again. The feeling hadn't changed. She felt familiar to this place.

"Here we are. Make yourself comfortable." It might also be your home anyway. She couldn't say that aloud though. It still felt too crazy.

"Wow, this place's beautiful." Paige said looking around impressed. But it felt like she knew where everything was, she knew on the right to the dining room there was a conservatory, on the left the doorway to the kitchen. On her right the living room even if this was already visible.

She went to the couch, sat down and took everything in. She really liked the old manor with the Victorian style. Phoebe came in and handed her a cup of tea. She sat down next to her on the couch. "So you like it?"

"Very. Oh by the way can I use the bathroom?"

Phoebe explained the way. Although Paige somehow knew it she didn't tell Phoebe. 'Probably better to leave her alone with this for now. She gets to talk when Prue and Piper are home.'

They filled the rest of the time with small talk until they heard the door open.

"I'm home!" Piper. Phoebe went towards the door. "Phoebe. Hi."

"Hey. How was your day?"

"Good. Paige? Hi. Nice to see you again. Are you in for dinner?" Piper asked a little surprised to see Paige on the couch.

"Umm, I think today's gonna be a bit more than just dinner."

"Oh what, did Phoebe do something? I'm sorry, look she's still young and.." Piper was cut off by a laughing Paige.

"No no, Piper. Phoebe didn't do anything. In fact she's doing her job better than others usually do. I really love myself for making such a good choice in her. But what I meant by my comment, it's best to explain when Prue's here, too."

So they waited having small talks again though Piper did realize that Phoebe was quieter than usual. She didn't ask since she assumed that she would figure out once Prue was home.

They heard the door open and close after about half an hour.

"Guys, I'm home! Piper, is dinner ready cause I'm starving. You won't believe what Martha said to me today, I hate that woman! Can you believe that she actually wanted to….. Oh Paige, hi. Sorry I didn't know you were here." Prue said a little embarrassed when she saw everyone including Paige sitting in the living room.

"Hi, Prue. It's okay you couldn't have known it. Umm, actually I'm here cause Phoebe and I fugured something out today, which is actually confusing us more but.." Paige stopped herself, she didn't make sense. "Let me tell this, Paige." Phoebe spoke up. She had remained quiet until now but the time to talk had come.

"Prue, Piper, you should sit down."

"Okay Phoebe, what did you do now?" Prue glared at her youngest sister.

"I didn't do anything! Why does everyone automatically assume that I did?" She started to get angry but pushed it aside. There were more important things to talk about.

"Guys, this is really important and I still don't really believe it myself, so this is gonna be hard to tell and hard to hear for you, too. So please let me finish talking first and don't interrupt with any questions, okay?" She asked intending to tell everything in one go. The older sisters nodded reluctantly. They were curious as to what was so important. Apparently it had to do with Paige since she was there, too.

"Okay, where should I start…. Everyone in here felt really familiar to each other, right? Meaning Paige to us three and other way round. I even had a flashback of Paige when she was 16. Nuh uh. Don't interrupt. I don't know myself why or what it meant. Anyway, when I was doing my work today I saw a picture of Paige with her parents on it. Though not the real parents cause she was adopted. That was fine. Now next she gave me a picture with her real mother. And it was the picture of… of Mom."

"What?" Both sisters jumped at this. "What do you mean of Mom?" Prue asked a little too loud. Piper just sat there her mouth wide open. This time Paige answered.

"Please calm down, Prue. Phoebe saw the picture of my real mother, which was apparently one of her mother as well." There was a long, heavy silence. Everyone took in what had been said. After a while Prue dared herself to speak.

"So are you saying that… that.. Paige is our…."

"Sister." Piper finished still looking at Paige and Phoebe in disbelief. After another silence Prue realized that something wasn't right.

"Wait. Phoebe didn't you just say you saw a … a flashback..or whatever.. of Paige when she was 16? That's crazy. It can't be. Okay it's true I felt that feeling too when I saw you Paige," she looked at Paige and then back to her little sis again "but it just isn't possible. We didn't know each other. Memories can't just vanish like that unless there's physical damage."

"Or a traumatic experience but what Prue says is true. No one of us can ever remember being all together before. This must be some kind of mistake." Piper said.

"What kind of mistake! I saw the picture it was Mom I swear! Don't you feel it Piper! Look at Paige, look into her eyes. Don't tell me you see nothing, feel nothing there?" Phoebe screamed at both her older sisters getting really exasperated. Paige who was sitting next to her put her hands on her shoulders pushing her back to a sitting position. "Phoebe shhh. There's no need to yell." She said trying to calm the situation. "I know it's unbelievable and unexplainable and memories just can't vanish and this is all like magic, but why don't we just go let ourselves be checked up by a doctor so he can make a DNA test or something to see if we're related? Then we can figure out the rest and…" She was suddenly cut off by a huge crashing noise coming from upstairs.

"What was that?" Piper looked up.

"Don't know, sounded like the attic." Phoebe said having just calmed down and being startled again. She saw Prue getting up and running towards the stairs, Piper on her heels shouting after her. "Prue, the attic is closed for like ages, you can't get in there!"

Phoebe grabbed Paige by the hand pulling her towards the same way. "Come on. I don't know what that was but I want you to be there, too."

Prue stormed up the stairs to the attic. Seeing the door ajar she pushed it open, running into the room that had been closed for her for so many years. Before she could take in the surroundings she saw a figure standing in the middle of the room. Seeing who it was her mouth dropped open.

"G…g..Grams?" She managed out.

"Prudence. Well, hello my darling." Grams said with a smile.

Piper who was close behind her older sister saw that the attic door was wide open.

"Prue? What.. OH MY GOD! Is that….. Are you…"

"Grams." Phoebe said stopping in her tracks when she came in behind Piper, dragging Paige behind her.

"Good to see you my darlings. Each one of you." She said the last part looking at Paige.

It was a miracle no one fainted. They were so stunned that neither of them could say anything.

They were all sitting at the bed in the attic, looking at Grams.

"You… you're supposed to be dead, Grams. How…. I mean why.." Prue still couldn't believe her eyes. She had never believed in ghosts or spirits or something, unlike Phoebe. She was coping quite well with the scene before her. So she spoke the most useful sentences.

"Grams, does you being here have something to do with Paige? I mean, you kinda know what happened, right?" She asked getting up from the bed walking towards her grandmother.

"Yes my little one, I have a lot to explain to you, but the matter with Paige should be explained by another person." Suddenly, a light appeared and another figure was standing in the room. Appearing right next to Phoebe.

Piper was also approaching Grams as the other person appeared. What she saw made her mouth drop open the gazillionth time today.

Phoebe looked to her side right into the face she thought she was never going to see again. At least not like that. NOW it was too much for her. She slowly began to step back.

"Uh…… wha……… Mommy?" She said slowly and really, really quietly. She felt her knees getting weak and as she sank to the ground, she felt Piper's gentle arms catching her. Piper lowered her little sister to the ground going down with her so Phoebe was leaning against her chest, back first. Completely absorbed in the sight before her, she absent-mindedly rested her chin on Phoebe's head.

Prue took in the scene before her. She shook her head, looked again. Same. She rubbed her eyes, looked again. Still the same. There was her dead mother standing right next to her just as dead grandmother, smiling at her and her sisters. She didn't know how, but she found the strength to approach them. Paige right behind her. She couldn't believe it. Her real mother. She never ever in her life thought this moment would come.

"Hi Mom…. Can I …. Can I hug you?" Prue said in a shaky voice. She knew you couldn't touch ghosts, at least from what she heard.

"Of course you can, Prue." Patty said as she opened her arms. Prue fell in them, tears streaming down her face. "Mom. Mom. Am I really not dreaming? Is this really you?" She asked, her voice muffled in her mother's shoulder. Her body shook with sobs.

"Oh Prue! My sweetheart, it's really me, you're not dreaming. Oh honey I'm so sorry, you had to go through so much. You had to give up so many things, had to grow up so fast for your little sisters. You were forced to be so strong, never showing your tears to them. I'm sorry I wasn't there, I'm sorry I had to leave you so early. I love you so much." Patty was now in tears, too. "Me too, Mom. Me too…. I love you, too." Prue replied. Patty then she saw the other presence behind Prue. Slowly, she loosened her hug on her daughter and looked at Paige.

"I'm sure you're confused right now, Paige. I'm sure you think you don't know me. But I'll tell you everything now. The day has come when the truth can be told. But first, come here." Patty pulled Paige into an embrace.

This was the weirdest thing Paige had ever experienced. Technically she didn't know this woman. But as she was pulled into her hug, it felt like she had been there so many times. The sweet smell of her hair, the soft breathing, the warm shoulder as she rested the head on it and the strong arms around her. Paige couldn't stop her tears. Patty whispered into her ear as she rubbed her back. It was so silent no one else could hear it. "Oh, Paige. You were and are such a strong girl. You were the rock for everyone. You were the one Prue cried on when she was upset, you were the one to take Piper to her first day of school, it was you who changed Phoebe's diapers and rocked her back to sleep. You had to sacrifice so much. I'm so so sorry to you too. I love you." When Patty was finished, Paige was left too confused. She didn't know what her mother meant by all that. And she hated herself for it. "I love you, too.", was all she could say.

"Don't worry I'll explain everything to you." Her mother said as she made her way to Piper and Phoebe.

Piper was still sitting on the ground with her arms around Phoebe's waist and her chin on the top of her head. She saw the images before her. Mom appearing. Hugging Prue, hugging Paige. Both girls with tears streaming down her face. Then she saw her mother approaching. She slowly got up and she pulled Phoebe with her whose face was already messed with tears.

"Mom. Oh God Mom. I love you so much!" Piper said, falling into the arms of her mother, crying. "Piper, my sweet girl! I left you way too early. It was the same year you had to start school. I'm sorry I wasn't there. But I was watching you, I was always watching you. You were always the voice of reason in the family. With so many stubborn people, you were the one that made this family work. Made everyone work together, not against each other. And I thank you for that. I love you so so much my sweet angel." She said tightening her hug a little more. "I love you, too mom. And I always knew you were there. Always." Piper wiped the tears away from her face.

"Phoebe." Patty looked at her youngest daughter who was somehow behind Piper's back. She looked so much like a small shy child hiding behind the mother's back. She didn't know what to think. It wasn't like she didn't believe what she was seeing. It just didn't feel right for her, she practically had no memories of the person standing in front of Piper.

"Can I give my baby a hug? Come here, come to Mommy." She said as if coaxing a little child. And indeed, Phoebe came out of her hiding place behind Piper and stepped in the arms of the mother she had missed for so long. "Oh baby!" Patty tightened her embrace. This time neither one said much. Simply because it wasn't possible. Phoebe was in no state of saying anything. She was sobbing so loudly completely oblivious to what was happening around her she wouldn't have heard anything said by her mother either. The only thing Patty did was humming softly and patting Phoebe's back. The other ones in the room all had tears in their eyes. Not just because of their own experience just now but because their hearts crumbled to see the youngest so distraught. It was hard for Phoebe to calm down. She felt herself having difficulty breathing. Somehow realizing this, Prue walked up to her mother and sister, Patty knowing what this meant slowly let go of the youngest. Phoebe desperately tried to calm herself down. She had clenched her right hand into a fist and was biting it so that she would stop sobbing. She tried to hold it in but a sob escaped forcing her to suck the next breath in too quickly. She felt herself panic, beads of perspiration forming on her forehead. Prue couldn't watch it anymore as she saw her baby sister struggling to breath normally again. She quickly went behind Phoebe and put one arm around her waist her palm resting on the girl's stomach, the other hand on Phoebe's shoulder. "Okay sit down honey, sit down." she said gently and she sat her down much in the same position on the floor Piper and Phoebe had been a few minutes before. "Now sshhh, Phoebe, shhhhh. Take nice, deep breaths. Don't panic sweetie, it's okay. Just breath with me. Lean back honey, put your head on my shoulder and look at me. Now. Everything's fine. You're alright. Breathe." Prue gave instructions to her totally distraught sister. This happened quite a lot of times. Her youngest sister would start crying and wouldn't calm down. The difficulty breathing would send her to panic mode causing her to breathe even faster. There were times she thought about taking her to a doctor to check up if everything was okay with her lungs and all but until now Phoebe hadn't shown any of those signs after running or yelling. So she assumed it there was nothing wrong physically. She felt Phoebe slowly relaxing. "There we go, hun. Good girl. See? You're okay now. You're fine." She said with a reassuring smile as she brushed her hand over Phoebe's wet cheeks and clammy forehead. "Can you get up?" Prue asked softly as she tried to pull her sister from the ground. Phoebe stood up slowly but feeling like crap. She hated it whenever she lost control over her breathing. It felt like a panic attack and when it was over, she was always totally wiped out.

Everyone was now sitting on the bed again, Grams and Mom standing in front of it. Paige sat on the right end with Piper on her left. Phoebe was next to Piper with her head on her big sis' shoulder and Prue next to Phoebe Piper's hand in hers across Phoebe's lap.

"I know you must be all tired by now, some are already struggling to keep their eyes open," grams looked at the youngest with a smile, „but your mother and I have something really important to tell you."

"First of all, as you've already found out, Paige is your sister. Your half, big sister to be exact." Patty spoke. She wasn't really surprised that there was no big reaction from her daughters. So she continued.

"It all happened six years ago. This is going to sound very out of reality. So I'm not expecting you to understand everything just now. Especially Prue, I know this is not your world at all but just listen and take it in. Anyway, it all happened six years ago. Paige had lived here until then. You all grew up together." This didn't surprise Phoebe. 'I knew it.' Was the only thought she had. "Paige, you are the daughter of a man called Sam and me. I was living with Victor then but just one night was all it took. First I thought you were his, but I found out it wasn't true. Now this is the hard part. Your grandmother and I are both.. witches." THIS got everyone's mouth open and Phoebe's tiredness momentarily gone. "There are plenty of witches in the world. And we are good witches. Basically there are the evil ones, such as demons or warlocks, which are from the underworld, which is ruled by the source. And as a counterpart to that, there are the good witches. They are under the command of the Elders who you could compare to very powerful angels. Well not directly under their command but the witches are connected to them by their guardian angel, their whitelighters." Patty watched the girls' faces changing into many different features. She paused for a moment to let it sink in. "And Sam was my whitelighter. So Paige I saw you when you used your powers as a whitelighter, you were still a baby then, so I figured you were Sam's child. The problem was that there is a strict rule that witches and whitelighters are never to have a relationship like that. So the Elders wanted to take you from me, Paige. Of course we didn't agree. So one day we cast a spell to bind your powers and so that the fact that you were half whitelighter was forgotten by everyone, even the Elders. But to make such a strong spell we needed to sacrifice something. Unfortunately it claimed Sam's life. So we brought you up as Victor's daughter. I never told him the truth. But one day you accidentally found and read a spell which was meant to release your powers. I didn't hide it too well. So the Elders discovered everything. They wanted to take you from your grams and sisters but after my long begging they came to me with the alternative to bind your powers again and give you away to a completely unknown family and let everyone who knew you forget about your existence, except for me, Sam, your grandmother and the Elders, until destiny itself decided to bring you together. That was my punishment. Memories of you as a Halliwell were swapped with those you must have now from your childhood. Same for you." Patty looked at the other three. "On pictures you disappeared, though by now they must be the way they were before again. And in the same way, the pictures of the family who adopted you were filled with you. But don't worry, they'll stay like that forever."

Everyone was silent. There was SO much of information their brains got overloaded. But the basics sank in. Mom and Grams were witches, Paige was their big sister and there was apparently a world they didn't know. A supernatural world.

"This isn't all. The biggest part is not told yet." Grams said. "As I and your mother are witches, you inherit it, too." Prue was the one to speak. "So are you telling us we are.. we are…"

"Witches. Exactly, Prue. And very powerful ones for that. There is a legend that a very powerful witch, the most powerful one that ever existed, would inherit her powers to her female descendants. The powers grow with each generation, until the four sisters arrive. Our ancestor is that witch, Melinda Warren and you, my darlings, you are the four sisters, the Charmed Ones." Grams finished with a confident smile.

"We bound your powers the times when you were born but today we unbound them. The noise you heard earlier was the effect of it." Patty stated.

"No no no, you can't do this. You can't just appear one night though you're dead, tell us that we have another sister and that we are witches!" Prue's voice got louder. "You can't just mess with our lives like that!"

"What has happened cannot be changed. It is your destiny to be what you are now." Grams answered.

Paige still sat there without a word. But now as Prue was letting her voice come she snapped out of it and stood up as well.

"Wait, uh, Grams. Does that mean that I'm half witch half…. What were they called again.."

"Whitelighter, yes. But as you are my daughter and the males don't really count, you are still one of the Charmed Ones, the four mightiest witches of good. See it as a special gift from your father." Patty told Paige a beautiful smile across her face.

"Mom? Will we remember fully what… what really happened? I mean now that we are together again your…. spell… must wear off or something, right?" Piper spoke. Patty smiled inwards. Piper was always the rational one, no matter what situation she was in.

"By the time you will. The memories will come back in pieces, but it is very different from person to person. While for one it can take two weeks, the other might remember in two years and in a slow case it might even take twenty years." Patty replied.

Grams approached Phoebe who still sat on the bed with Piper. "Though you might remember quite quickly."

"What does that mean?" Piper asked.

"You will see. But it is time for us to leave. Take care, be very very careful." Grams answered.

"Wow, wow, wait on. Since we have to defend ourselves from… demons? now, we should have..um.. powers, right? What are they?" Phoebe asked. She was already accepting everything.

"As I said, you will see. You have to figure out everything yourselves. I can only say don't ever use your powers for personal gain. It will do you no good." Grams said sternly.

"Open that old chest there. You will find a book. It will help you through many things. We have to go now, my darlings but we will come back when you really need us. You can call us, too, with a spell written in the book but we are only allowed to answer and come to you when it is really urgent. So I wish you the best with this. Take good care of each other, always remember that before you are witches, you are sisters. And sisters help each other." Patty spoke as she looked at each face of her daughters. "Good bye. We love you."

"We love you, too, Mom and Grams." Prue said as both ghosts disappeared again and the attic got silent for a while.

"Guess we don't need the doctor then." Paige said with a small laugh.

"No, we don't." Piper answered quietly laughing, too.

"Seems like I have a big sister now, huh?" Prue stated still not completely digesting the whole situation.

"Yeah, and I got three little sisters." Paige said with the same tone as Prue.

"Guys, we are WITCHES." Piper said as if trying to convince herself of the truth.

"Powerful ones." Phoebe added.

"I… I don't know if I'm okay with that. I mean.. I can't… I just can't believe it." Prue replied with a hint of frustration in her voice.

"I can't either. We should give it time, Prue." Paige said as everyone made their way downstairs. "I'll go now. It's already quite late and I need some time for myself to let this sink in." Paige said.

"I think we all need some time now. Good night Paige, drive carefully." Piper answered as they led Paige to the front door.

"Um, Paige?"

"Yes, Phoebe?"

"Will you… um.. come back? I mean… like..in our lives? Cause you know what, guys? I do believe and accept everything Mom and Grams said. I do believe in that we are witches, mighty witches. And above all I do believe in that we are sisters. …So will you come back, Paige? I'm not asking you to move in like tomorrow or something but maybe eventually.. When you're ready.", she looked to the ground "I mean you grew up here, right? It's your home. I want my family to be together, and you.. you're my big sister, as much as Prue and Piper are." Phoebe finished looking up into Paige's eyes. To her surprise Paige let out a sigh and pulled her into a hug, putting a hand on the back of Phoebe's head.

"I can't promise anything, little one, but you know what? I accept the sister part, too. So I'll think about it, okay? That means only if Prue and Piper agree." She looked to her younger sisters and received a smile, telling her they already had agreed. "And when the memories come back, I will surely be already living with you. But for today I can't say anything. Let me just think everything over, alright honey?" Paige felt Phoebe nod. "Good. Now go to sleep, you look tired. I'll see you tomorrow at work." Paige let go of Phoebe after giving her a kiss on her cheek.

The three sisters sat in the living room, all huddled up on the couch. Prue leaning against the arm of the couch, Phoebe leaning against her chest and Piper across from Phoebe, her legs on her little sis' lap.

"This was the longest night I've ever had in my life." Piper said finally breaking the silence.

"You could say that. It still feels like I'm in some kind of TV show." Prue replied, absent-mindedly running her hand through Phoebe's hair.

"What..um..powers do you think we have?" Piper asked still clumsy with the new terms in her language.

"I have no idea. She said we'll find out soon enough. But maybe that book Mom was talking about can help. She said it was in some kind of trunk in the attic." Prue answered.

"Yeah, maybe we should get it now. I'm kinda curious." Said Phoebe while suppressing a yawn.

"No, not today. And not you anyway. You're so tired sweetie." Prue said looking down to Phoebe and running her palm over her little sister's forehead. "Go upstairs, hun. Go to sleep. Piper and I will not be far behind you, anyway." She coaxed.

"I'm not tired." Phoebe said but a yawn unintentionally escaped, making Prue and Piper laugh.

"Oh you so are. Come on sweetie, let's go upstairs. We don't wanna have to carry you to bed when you fall asleep on Prue." Piper said with a grin getting up and pulling Phoebe up as well.

"Night Prue, I'll see you tomorrow. Love you."

"Me too. Night Piper. Night Pheebs."

The next morning was hard for everyone. It was a long long night and they didn't know what would await them in their future.

"Oooh somebody just shoot me, please." Prue walked into the kitchen where Piper and Phoebe were already eating their breakfast.

"You, too? Killer headache, huh?" Piper said handing her big sis a cup of coffee.

"Oh. Coffee. Thanks, Piper. You just saved my life." Prue took the cup with a grateful look. "So I wasn't dreaming everything, was I?" she asked her little sisters hoping that maybe it was all nor real.

"Nope. Paige is our sister and we are all witches." Phoebe stated matter-of-factly. Prue sighed. This is going to be fun.

Paige sat at her desk typing a report. It was still early and Phoebe was still in school. She thought back to last night's events everything still in a haze. 'So I have three little sisters. And I'm a witch. And my real Mom and Grams, who are dead by the way, appeared in front of me and hugged me. Plus, my new assistant is my baby sister. Great. A little change in my life will do me good.' She thought with a sarcastic chuckle. She rubbed her temples and tried to get rid of the headache. She saw the coffee cup on the table a little far away from her. "Coffee. I need coffee." Before she could get up, she saw the cup disappear in white-blue lights and reappear in front of her, much the same way.

"Oh. Oh. Wow. This is… Oookay, calm down, Paige. It's your… power doing it…. Gosh this is too much for me now." She put her head on her desk wondering if she should be happy or if she should cry. But after a while she decided to call the number she had received from Prue last night just in case something happened.

Prue was at a photo shoot at Golden Gate Park. She saw Martha, another photographer pacing around her models. Prue just hated this woman. She thought there was no one in the world that was more arrogant, bitchy and whatever negative word you can find in the English language. 'I wish she would drop her camera and break it so that she can't continue here, so that she can finally piss off.' As if her wish was heard, the big camera flew out of Martha's hand and hit one of the models. The model wasn't injured but the angry 'she threw her camera at me!' was heard by everyone. Martha was told to leave getting looks of disbelief and anger from everyone.

"Oh wow. Was it me who did that? Was that my….power?" Prue mumbled to herself still shocked to what had just happened. Then she heard her cell ringing.

"Hello?"

"Prue? It's Paige. Did anything strange happen to you today?" She was still talking a bit fast.

"Oh God Paige! You won't believe what just happened!" So Prue told everything she saw and Paige did likewise. They decided to let Prue call Piper and Paige would see Phoebe later that day anyway.

Piper was as usual cooking at Quake. Due to her hard night yesterday, she wasn't really concentrating and as she was putting pepper in the soup, she didn't realize the lid falling off the glass and the whole pepper going in. After she realized what happened, she panicked. To her horror, she saw her boss with that French accent approaching her.

"Let me see if our young cook is doing her work." He said spooning up the contents of the pot and bringing it to his mouth. 'Oh no no no no! Stop stop stop!' She screamed inside and shut her eyes. As nothing happened, she opened them again seeing the unexpected.

Her boss was stopping in his tracks as the whole kitchen did. She looked closely at her frozen boss, eyes wide open. Despite her shock, she found the strength to swap the spoon with another spoon filled with soup from another pot. As soon as she was finished, everything was moving again as if nothing happened.

"Mon Dieu, Piper! This is really good! I'm very satisfied." Her boss said and walked away.

"What did I just do..?" Piper was left stunned.

Phoebe walked up to South Bay Social Service. As she wanted to cross the street she saw the car approaching. Suddenly her world turned black and white. It reminded her of the flashback she had had, the one of Paige. But this time she saw a little girl crossing the street and hit by a car. By the car which was approaching her. Her eyes shot open and despite the dizziness she got as an effect of the vision, she ran across the road, pushing the little girl to the sidewalk. A honk was heard and she felt herself hitting the ground. Pain shot through her right wrist and head. But she never lost consciousness as she got up slowly, indicating to the worried crowd that was forming that she was okay.

"Oh my God, Miss! Are you okay! I'm sorry I didn't see you, I swear! Can I take you to the hospital?" The driver was panicking with worry spread across his face.

"No, I'm fine, I really am. Look, you weren't driving that fast. I just fell, that's all." Phoebe said. Except for the light pain in her wrist and the shaky knees from the shock she didn't feel like something was wrong. So she assumed there was no need to go to a doctor. Saying a good bye to the girl and the very grateful mother, she continued her way to the office. 'That must have been my power or something. Maybe I can see the future. Maybe that's what Grams meant with me remembering faster than the others. Maybe it's my power making it easier.' She thought. How right she was.

Paige finished her typing work as she heard the door to her office open. She saw her now youngest sister coming in.

"Phoebe! You don't believe what happened today! I can move things with my mind so can Prue." Paige said the second part a little quieter so that no one heard it except for Phoebe.

"That's.. that's great, Paige. And has Piper told you anything?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah, she apparently stopped time or something. Saved her day in the kitchen, she was saying." Paige told her with a laugh. "And you? Did anything happen?"

"I.. I, I can see the future. I mean like wh.. what's going to happen in a sh..short time, though." She replied. She realized she was stuttering. 'Maybe the shock of that little accident.' She concluded.

"Wow, that's awesome." But after a second, Paige realized that Phoebe wasn't talking right. "Phoebe? Is everything okay?" She walked up to her sister who was now in front of her desk. Then she saw the dirt on Phoebe's clothes. "What happened to you?" She asked worriedly.

"Oh, I just fell. Nothing big though." She replied with a shaky voice. "You fell? And it was no big thing? Phoebe, look at yourself, you're shaking. Come on, I'll take you to the doctor's." Paige said grabbing Phoebe's hand. "No, no it's fine, I feel totally fine, really. And I'm just weak on my knees cause of the initial shock or something like that. It's gonna wear off soon, I promise." She replied. She really felt fine, besides, she HATED hospitals. She didn't want to worry Paige by saying she was hit by a car, either.

"Okay then. But if you feel any worse and I mean ANY, tell me, okay?" She said sternly.

"Okay I will." Phoebe answered as she made her way to her desk.

How long had she sat there? Phoebe was reading about a rather uninteresting case on her screen. The first ten minutes were okay but she felt her headache strengthen minute by minute and began to feel queasy. She first ignored it but now as she sat there for an hour reading passages of the file over and over again due to her lack of concentration, the headache got unbearable and she fought hard not to throw up. She decided to go to Paige. Obviously there was something wrong with her, maybe the effects of the accident just didn't appear right away. So she slowly got up, fighting the dizziness she had in the process. She clumsily made her way to Paige's desk, where her big sister was typing something again.

"Paige… I don't feel good…." She said just above a whisper. Paige looked up just to see a really pale Phoebe fighting to keep standing. She quickly paced over to her putting her arm around her waist to steady her. "Oh God, Phoebe! What is it?" She then saw the tiny sweat beads forming on the girl's forehead and heard the shallow breathing.

"Come on. I'll take you to hospital, and this time you ARE going." She said firmly but with love and concern in her voice. She felt Phoebe leaning heavily against her. "Can you walk?" She received a nod. "Paige, I feel sick." She said weakly. "Oh honey, just hold on, we'll make you better soon, okay?" Paige led Phoebe out of her office really slowly. Before getting in Paige's car, Phoebe lost it and was sick, surrendering her lunch on the ground. "I'm sorry." Phoebe said weakly. Paige looked at her sympathetically as she rubbed her back. "Oh sweetie, it's okay. Come on, get in the car so we can take you to a doctor fast, okay?" She said while wiping Phoebe's mouth with a tissue. She started the car and made her way to SFMH. "Just tell me when you feel like getting sick again, alright?" Phoebe nodded and leaned her head heavily against the cool window. They had to stop a few times on the way but eventually pulled up to the hospital. Paige was now sitting in the waiting room with a worried look. She had no chance to call Prue or Piper yet but wanted to wait until the doctor told her what was wrong with her baby sister.

She then saw a man in white approaching her.

"Miss Halliwell?"

"How is my sister? What's wrong with her?" Paige asked concerned. The doctor smiled and replied in a gentle tone. "Phoebe is fine. She has a cracked wrist and a mild concussion. Nothing serious. You can take her home today. Actually we would like to keep her in for another night for observation but she insisted on going home. So we will let her do that but as soon as you see changes in her bring her back, okay? She told me she was hit by a car. Next time it would be better to bring her in right away. Concussions can become very dangerous if you don't treat them."

"She was hit by a car! She told me she fell! Anyway, can I see her?" Paige couldn't believe Phoebe hadn't told her that.

"Sure, we let her rest a bit since she was still feeling a little weak. I'll let a nurse lead you to her room. Later I need you to sign a few papers and get the pain medications from the reception, alright?"

"Thank you doctor." Paige said but now she had to call Prue or Piper, at least for the papers. She wasn't officially Phoebe's sister yet. But she would take care of that soon. She thought about calling Prue but thinking about her temper with the youngest she decided to call her other little sister, Piper. But first she needed to have a talk with Phoebe.

As she entered the room, she saw her sister on her bed, eyes closed. So she decided to call Piper now.

"Piper? Hi it's Paige. …….No, nothing happened after that. At least not to me…… Well, Phoebe can apparently see the future or something. But I didn't wanna tell you that. Phoebe was hit by a car…. Calm down honey, she's fine. Just a cracked wrist and a mild concussion…. Yeah, she's with me now…. SFMH…Don't worry, she's okay, sleeping actually…. Yeah, I wanted you to do that anyway cause you know officially I'm not your sister yet so I need someone to sign her out…what?...yeah, she can leave today. Alright, I'll see you then. Bye." She hung up and turned to Phoebe again. And saw her stir.

"Uhh… where..?.."

"Hey honey." Paige said softly, smiling and gently running her cool palm over Phoebe's once clammy forehead. "You're at the hospital, you were with me at work but then you felt really bad so I brought you in here, remember?"  
"Oh yeah.. Paige I'm sorry." she replied still sleepily.

"For what, sweetie?"

"For not telling you what really happened. I saw this girl being hit by a car in my vision and I just reacted out of instinct. Pushed her out of the way. I didn't tell you cause I didn't want you to worry. I'm sorry you had to leave work and do this. I didn't mean to, but I just felt so awful and.."

"Shhh, it's alright already. Sure it was wrong not to tell me what happened but next time do it, okay? And concerning my work.. honey you're my sister, my baby sister. Of course I leave work for you when you're not feeling good. You scared the crap out of me, you know? Don't do that again." She said with a smile.

"Sorry. I promise I won't. Thanks for taking care of me." Paige just smiled as a response and continued to stroke Phoebe's head. "Paige?"

"What, hun?"

"I love you." Paige was a little taken aback by this but not for long. This was the first time Phoebe had said that as a sister. A family. She gently kissed the girl's forehead and whispered back, "I love you too, baby, I love you too."

Then they heard the door open. Phoebe sat up and was instantly hugged by a worried Piper.

"Oh Phoebe, are you okay honey? Does anything hurt? How did this happen?" She covered her sister with questions as she sat on the bed next to Phoebe cupping her cheek with one hand. "Piper I'm okay. Just a little headache and sore wrist. Nothing more. Actually can we go home now that you're here to sign me out?" Phoebe asked a little impatiently.

"Sure. But only if you really feel fine enough to get up. Maybe you should sleep a bit more?"

"Piper I already slept for an hour or so. I can do the rest at home. Please just take me home, ok?"

"Alright. Wait here I'll go sign the papers and get your painkillers. In the car you can tell me what happened." With that, she walked out of the room.

"Phoebe I thought about that moving to your house thing. Or actually our house..whatever. Anyway like today when anything happens I guess it's a lot easier if I was officially your sister, too. And since it's known that I was adopted it's no big thing to change my papers so that I'm Paige Halliwell again. But above all I want to come back in your lives as you said, cause the feeling's there. I'm your sister and nothing can change that. So if you're all still okay with it I'll be glad to have a new…or old..home. What d'ya say?"

"OH Paige! That's the best thing I've heard today! I love you!" Phoebe hugged Paige tightly covering her with kisses.

"Easy, easy. You're suffocating me." She laughed. "And I have to ask Prue and Piper, too"

"Well I'm okay with it." They turned around to see Piper with a bag of painkillers in her hand. "Actually I'll be glad to have you back, too, Paige. It's not only you who feels it. Though my head still doesn't know it, my heart says that you're my big sister and that you've always been part of our lives. I'm glad you'll come home." She said. When she finished, Paige stepped towards her and pulled her into an embrace. "Oh Piper. I'm so happy you feel the same. I hope we'll remember soon, it must have been so much fun growing up with you three."

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure about that." Piper said jokingly earning her a playful punch from her little sister.

All four sisters sat in the living room. Prue wasn't all too happy as to what happened to Phoebe but seeing that she was alright, she eventually calmed down. They had each talked about what had happened to them today.

"So apparently Paige and I have the power to move things, just that it looks different, Piper you got the power to stop time and you, Pheebs, can see the future." Prue summed up.

"Looks like it. But it's no fair, why do I always have to be the one with the worst, I mean it's the weakest power, I can't even defend myself!" Phoebe said a little upset about the injustice.

"Seeing the future might be very useful, you know? I mean weren't you the one who saved the first innocent today?" Paige tried to cheer her up.

"I know but still." Phoebe pouted.

"Oh come on, Phoebe. Maybe your powers will grow sometime." Prue exclaimed.

"They better do."

"Um, guys?" Piper interrupted, "what about that book they were talking about?"

"Think we should take a look at it?" Prue asked while getting up and heading to the stairs. The sisters followed.

Reaching the trunk in the attic, they wiped the dust off it and took the huge heavy book out.

"This thing looks really old." Piper said as she opened it.

"Oh my God look. There are pictures and explanations about all kinds of weird… demons? in it." She said passing it to everyone.

"Oh and look at the first page." Prue pointed to a spell

Her now the words of the witches

The secrets we hid in the night

The oldest of Gods are invoked here

The great work of magic is sought

In this night and in this hour

We call upon the ancient power

Bring the powers to the sisters four

The time has come, return their power

"This must be that power releasing spell. Oh and here it is said that there is the power of moving things, stopping time and premonitions." Prue said.

"Let me see, I wanna see too." Phoebe reached forward and grabbed the book from Prue. As her hand touched it, her world went black and white.

She saw a girl about 18 years running up the same steps to the attic. Was that.. yes, it was Prue. Next thing she saw was another girl coming in. The same face as the girl she saw in her very first vision. Paige. She looked about the same, well just that she was 19.

She saw everything from a familiar angle. Her hiding place that day.

"Gosh I wish that girl wasn't so small. I mean there are a million places to hide for a girl of Phoebe's size in here!" Young Prue said exasperated.

"Calm down, Prue she can't hide forever. We'll just have to be patient and she'll come out. She does get hungry, and she does need to use the bathroom sometime, you know?" Young Paige said putting an arm over Prue. "I can't believe she got into a fight! Poor boy bled from his nose so much he nearly passed out!"

"Cut her some slack, Prue, she's 12. Kids do those things at that age. And Phoebe was just defending herself. She ignored him first but he just didn't stop. She told me that and I believe her." Came another voice from the door. Piper. Even at times like this, she was her protection shield. "Besides I know where she's hiding, I think." Oh. Not really the best protection. Piper went to a corner of the attic pointing to a big chest. Good, that's not where she was hiding. Prue hurried to the chest and opened it. Seeing no one in it she was on her way to laugh at Piper for her mistake but seeing crack on the bottom of it, she got curious and touched it, so that the whole bottom moved. "Hey I think this thing has a double bottom. Look." She made way for Paige. "You're right. …What's this? It looks like a book." She said grabbing further in pulling the thing out. Indeed, it was a book. A huge one for that. "What kind of book is it? It looks really old." Piper looked over Paige's shoulder. This was just too much for Phoebe. Her curiosity got over her, forgetting that she was in mid-lecture of Prue and Paige for hitting people. "Hey let me see that, too!" She called behind her sisters.

"There you are Phoebe! I'm not finished with you yet, missy. But for now it's okay come here." Prue said putting the book lower so that everyone could see it.

"Book of Shadows. Weird name. Oh wow!" As she went through the pages Prue saw interesting pictures in it.

"This one looks gross! What is this?" Piper looked through it a little taken aback by the pictures in it. "Maybe I should cover your eyes Pheebs. You'll get nightmares."

"Piper I'm 12 not 5!"

"What a difference in your case." Prue said sarcastically.

"Guys look, this thing just fell out of it." They were interrupted by Paige who was now holding a sheet of paper in her hand. "It looks like a poem or something." She began to read. As she finished, blue-white lights appeared around her and went into her.

"Oh dear God Paige, what have you done?" They all heard Grams saying as she stood shocked by the doorframe.

The vision ended. Phoebe opened her eyes and saw the concerned faces of her sisters looking at her. "Hey, are you okay?" Prue asked worriedly.

"We've opened this book before." Phoebe stated just above a whisper.

"What?" Came Piper's voice.

"We've been standing here before, Piper. I was hiding cause Prue and Paige wanted to lecture me and you guys found this book. I got curious and went to you. Then we found a spell, Paige read it and blue lights went into her. We looked through this book before, don't you remember, guys?" Phoebe looked at her sisters. They looked like they were deep in thought.

"Look, I was hiding cause you got mad at me, Prue, remember? I beat the crap out of that boy in school. And Paige you weren't as mad as Prue but you wanted to tell me what's right and what's not. Piper you defended me, said that it wasn't really my fault. Remember?" She said a little frustrated.

"Now that you say it Pheebs, I kinda do remember. Hey Paige, didn't you want to wait until Phoebe was hungry or needed the bathroom for her to come out?" Prue asked.

"Yeah and Piper, you said you knew where Phoebe was." She answered.

"Uh huh, and I was wrong. Pheebs was somewhere else."

"Exactly!" They all agreed. "Man, I think that was just our first memory of us together coming back." Said Prue a little impressed. "Wow…" The girls were left stunned.

"Prue, can I talk to you? I mean just us?" Paige asked Prue quietly as the sisters were walking down the stairs.

"Um, sure." Wondering what it was about, she made her way to the couch and sat down with Paige. "Um, Piper, could you make us some tea, please?" She told her little sister. Piper, getting the message, walked out of the room. "Sure Prue. Pheebs, come here. Help me a little in the kitchen, will you?" Phoebe got the meaning behind it too since Piper NEVER asked her to help in the kitchen. It was her 7th heaven in the manor and she certainly didn't want anyone to interrupt her private time in that place, especially not her little sister since, as sweet as she was, she could really get on her nerves sometimes.

"So what's that you wanted to talk about?" Prue said looking at Paige.

"Okay. Um, how do you feel about.. well… all that's happening now, I mean, you being my sister and all.?" Paige began carefully.

"Well, this morning I wasn't really sure what to think, you know? I mean like it all happened just way too fast. It's not like I didn't believe it. Just that it was kinda… oh I don't know how to say it. But anyway. Right now, after we've seen the book, and now that I actually remember a part of us growing up together… it isn't that weird anymore. Before I felt strangely close to you, but then again I felt so insecure..cause I didn't know why I felt like I did. Do I make sense?" She saw Paige nod. "But now as I'm here talking to you.. it feels right. Talking to you is like eating when you're hungry, or sleeping when you're tired. You know I mean? It's just the most normal thing in the world. That's how I feel." She finished looking into Paige's brown eyes.

"That's basically what I feel, too. But.. you know you still don't remember much. I don't. So for now it's like you have always been the big sister. And now you're not the oldest anymore. I don't wanna offend you, don't get me wrong. But aren't you kinda…jealous or something? You know you're gonna have to share your little sisters with me now. Kind of. When they want to talk or something or when they are hurt, sick or just want to cuddle. You won't be…the only one who'll be there then. I mean are you okay with that?" Paige asked not sure how to explain everything. Prue sighed deeply and began to speak.

"Paige. I want you to know one thing. You're my sister, too. And I don't mind at all that Piper and Phoebe have one person more to talk to. To let in their lives and hearts. And to be honest I'm glad to have a big sis now." Prue said with a smile, "sometimes even I need someone. And don't get this wrong I really love Piper and Phoebe to bits but it's easier to talk to someone you can lean on than to the ones you should be protecting."

"So you're not upset or anything when they come to me sometimes instead of you? I mean they still need you. Okay Piper's pretty much of an independent person but Phoebe.. She's.."

"Still a kid, I know. I mean she's got her driver's licence for what? Two years? And she can't even buy herself some alcohol legally for another three years. Not that I want her to." She grinned. "She needs me to pay the daily bills, she needs me to give her lifts to school. Plus she's at the age where you don't know what's going on in her mind. Piper knows when she's got a problem, when she's upset or angry. She knows when it's best to talk to me or Phoebe, and now to you, too. But Phoebe just keeps things bottled up, you don't wanna know! It's really exhausting sometimes. She still needs you to keep pushing her until she realizes that it might be better to talk. And she needs someone to tell her that it's alright to do so. So in any way I know she needs me, and I'm happy for it." She confessed. "With her personality it might take even longer to be as independent as Piper is now, but I don't mind that at all. It will be so much easier to have you with me. You know what I wanna say? It's easier to guide someone, to raise someone if you're not alone. Which means that I will be happy to have you around to watch out for her a bit. So that I can take a brake from time to time. You know I mean?" She said in a reassuring tone still smiling and looking into Paige's orbs.

"Yeah. I'm so happy you see it that way. I promise I won't let anything happen to us. To none of us. And concerning Phoebe don't worry she works with me so she's under my care." She had to laugh at this herself, "That kinda sounded like you bringing her to day-care, hey?" Prue laughed, too. "Well maybe that would be quite the idea." They both laughed.

Meanwhile in the kitchen Phoebe sneezed. She sat on the chair while Piper was cutting vegetables for a late night salad.

"Bless you. Are you getting a cold?" Piper said shoving a slice of cucumber into Phoebe's mouth.

"No. It's more like the one you get when someone's talking about you." She glared towards the living room while getting the next piece of vegetable from Piper pushed into her mouth.

"Prue? As that's settled now, there's one more thing." Paige looked at a puzzled Prue. "I was thinking about Phoebe's suggestion to move back in. And I would be happy to do that. What do you think?" Prue's face lightened up. "You don't even have to ask." They smiled and hugged.

It was a week ago that the sisters discovered the book. Paige was already half living in the manor. She still needed to move some more things from her apartment but at night she slept with her sisters. So far nothing weird or magical had happened.

"Where are Prue and Pheebs?" Paige asked one morning as she entered the kitchen of the manor where Piper was making the next pancakes. She would come to the manor after work with Phoebe and spend the night there, and in the morning took care of the whole moving thing and go to work again.

"Well Prue's already at an early photo shoot. She's gonna be home pretty early though. Like noon or something. And Phoebe is in school. Oh yeah she wanted me to ask you if it was okay if she skipped work today. Something about going out with her friends the whole day. Birthday or something. She said she'd do the missed work at home but if it wasn't okay for you she'd still come to work."

"Oh no it's fine. She can have her party she's working hard everyday anyway. She can use a brake I'm sure." Paige said biting in her pancake.

"Thanks Paige. I told her you'd call if it doesn't work but now you said yes… So what are you gonna do today? You need a hand with the moving?" Piper asked.

"Umm, actually yeah. Maybe you could help me with that little stuff I've left there. You know books and so on.

"Okay cool. I have a day off today so lets just finish breakfast and go to your apartment, ok?" She was glad Quake was closed today so now she was able to spend time with her 'new' big sister.

Arriving at the apartment, they both got off the car and climbed up the stairs to Paige's old home. They both began to pack the stuff.

"I couldn't imagine living alone like this. Well with someone else maybe but didn't you get lonely or something?" Piper asked while wiping the dust of some books.

"When I had time, yes. But it was mostly like I was so busy with work I didn't even think about that." Paige replied. She threw a few things in the trash.

"You sound like Prue. But it's a good thing to like your work. Just that you should watch that you get enough rest as well. I swear if Prue doesn't work a little less soon she's gonna brake down. Same with Phoebe how can you have work, not job, work AND go to college? And that at 18? That's like high school student." Piper said with a hint of exasperation in her voice.

"I figured that. But don't worry we'll watch them both. Though with Prue it might be a little harder since I don't get to see her at work. I mean I'm Phoebe's boss so I can control how much she gets to work, right?"

"Good thing." She moved some books. "Oh Paige what about this one? Pack or trash?" She held up another book and threw it away as Paige told her to. They didn't realize a shadow on the floor, slowly raising to a figure. As it formed a dark electric ball in his hand, Paige saw something move in the corner of her eye and turned around to see Piper trying to lift the trash and a pitch black figure about the size of a human aiming something like an electric ball at her little sister.

"Piper watch out!" She shouted but it was too late. The ball flew across the room and hit Piper right in the chest.

"PIPER!" She rushed to her fallen sister as she out of instinct used her power and stabbed the shadow demon with a knife which was left next to the kitchen sink. To her surprise it vanished to million pieces with a loud growl. And to her surprise Piper was still conscious, though you could see her eyelids getting heavier.

"Oh God Piper! Shit! Hold on honey I'll get help." She took out her cell and dialled 911.

"P…Pai..ge." Piper's voice was barely audible and her breathing shallow.

"Shhhh honey. It's okay. You'll be alright. Don't try and talk." She said with tears rolling down her cheek.

"How… i..ronic…I get..a sis..ter..and now…can't ev…en..spent ti…time with her..any more.." Piper said with big effort, blood trickling from her mouth.

"Don't say that Piper. Don't you say that! You'll be just fine, you'll see. You can't leave, do you hear me? What would Prue and Phoebe do without you, what would I do?" She said crying. She saw Piper's strength leaving her slowly.

"I…lo..love..you.." Piper said with tears trickling down her cheek, too.

"I love you, too honey. Just hold on a little bit more, okay?" She looked at her watch wondering what took the paramedics so long. "Damit what are they taking so long! Shit Piper, stay with me!" She pulled her sister closer. But suddenly, as her hand brushed over the wound, her hand started to glow and the wound started to slowly close.

"Oh my God! Am I doing this?" Despite her surprise, she knew somehow how to concentrate and eventually, Piper made a full recovery.

"Huh? What the hell..Paige I thought I was.." Piper was confused.

"I thought that, too…Wow…seems like my power isn't just moving things..I can heal people." She was stunned and impressed the same time.

"Must be the whitelighter side in you..Paige you just saved my life. I don't know how to ever thank you for that." She said hugging Paige really tightly.

"Thank me by living, silly. I love you." Paige said still crying a little.

"I love you, too." Piper replied, her voice also cracking.

As the initial shock was over, they began to realize just what had attacked them. Panic spread across the room but thinking about it, he was vanquished, right? They vowed to each other to be really really careful in the future as to prevent what happened just now.

"Gosh that was scary. I mean I expected those..creatures to come sometime but when it really happens…" Piper said still a little pale.

"Uh huh. And just where did it come from? Last time I checked it wasn't here in my room." Paige too was a bit pale. But then her colour drained even more from her face as she remembered what she had done.

"Oh oh. I called the paramedics. And now you're completely fine. What are we gonna tell them?" Paige asked new panic, this time not as serious though, spreading across her face.

"Ok. Um, how about saying I passed out and you just overreacted? I mean did you tell them that I was injured?" Piper asked.

"No I was in such a rush I just told them to just come and gave them my address."

"Then let's do that."

The paramedics arrived and the girls told them their made up version. Piper was checked just to make sure but it seemed that she was completely fine, just a little weak on her knees.

Arriving back at the manor, they sat in the living room talking but eventually fell asleep. It was a bit much on one morning. That's how Prue found them later, both sisters sleeping with Piper leaning against Paige, Paige with a protective arm around her.

Her classes for the day finished. Phoebe was waiting outside for her friends to come out. She saw Ashley running towards her.

"Hey Pheebs! Are you ready to go? The guys are already at Johnny's, I told them we'd meet there."

"Oookay. Then what are we waiting for? We gotta get the party prepared. Who's bringing the drinks?" Phoebe asked cheerfully.

"Mike I guess. He looks like 24 so. They usually give him some stuff." Ashley replied. Phoebe never really thought about drinking being illegal for her. She didn't see what could be so bad about it as long as she didn't do it constantly.

They walked up to their friend's house and stepped in. They didn't see the shadow moving on the ground but disappearing again.

It was already late and the street was quiet, though one house was filled with laughter, people's talking and music.

"Happy birthday again, John! You know I just love you, don't ya?" Phoebe said for the upteenth time in the past few hours, giving her friend a bear hug, causing everyone to laugh. She was having way too much to drink as did her friends. Everyone was wasted as they washed down the stress of the exams. "Oh daaarn I gotta go now isso late. Can you gimme a lift home, Aash?" Phoebe slurred as she leaned against her friend.

"Shit you wiiight. Iss kinda late, huh? But d'ya know what?" She hiccupped. "I don think I can weally dwive now." She laughed. "Asshually I don think anyone can." She looked around as she laughed again. Phoebe was also giggling the whole time.

"Ooooookaay then I godda call my wonderful sisstas. Hope Pwue isn home." That was stupid cause it was early morning though still dark and who wouldn't be home when he's to work on the next day.

The phone of the Halliwell manor rang.

"If that's Phoebe I'm gonna kill her through the phone, I swear!" A fully awake and mad Prue said. "Prue, let her be. She's doing everything so good. Work, school. She needs a brake, you know? As much as you do, too by the way." Piper escaped Prue's answer as she picked up the phone.

"Hello? Pheebs? Do you know what time it is?...Yeah pay attention next time….Pheebs just how much did you drink? You sound horrible. …I know you need a lift home, why do you think we're all up? I'll send Prue to you, okay?...No wait there….Phoebe what did I just say?... Okay. Just wanted to make sure you really understood it. See you then. And sober up a little before Prue gets you. Bye." She hung up the phone and told Prue where to pick her up. She felt sorry for both sisters, Prue for having to take care of the youngest once more and Phoebe for getting lectured.

Prue pulled up on the driveway of Johnny's house. There was Phoebe waiting for her sitting on the outside steps leaning against a wall. Rob was sitting next to her a hand on her back. Walking up to her she thanked her sister's friend for waiting with her.

"Thanks Rob. I got her now." She said kneeling down in front of Phoebe who had her head resting on her arms that held her knees to her chest.

"Sorry Prue she had a little too much I guess. Pheebs? Prue's here. Come on, wake up."

Phoebe looked up to see a rather unpleased Prue kneeling in front of her and then

pulling her up.

"Wasn sleepin. Juss ressin my head." She slurred leaning heavily into Prue who steadied her with an arm around her waist to prevent her from falling. Prue started to guide Phoebe to the car. "Mm sowwy Pwue, I didn mean to be so late."

"It's okay." Prue said. It was useless to scold her now so she would save it for tomorrow.

"And I didn't mean to be dis dwunk…" she hiccupped. She stumbled as the last stair ended and if it wasn't for Prue catching her, she'd have certainly fallen.

"Ah, easy kiddo, easy. I said it's alright, didn't I? Now come on. Lets get you home." She literally had to push her sister into her car. The drive home was silent as Phoebe fell asleep instantly. Prue didn't see the black figure when she pulled up to the manor driveway.

"Phoebe. Phoebe wake up. We're here." Prue shook her sister gently.

"Mpf, weave me awone I wanna sweep.." she said not opening her eyes.

"No honey you have to get out of the car first. Then you can sleep. Come on now." She said pulling her sister out. Phoebe's head instantly found her big sister's shoulder.

"Your stomach okay?"

"Mmmh."

"We gotta get you changed before going to bed, huh?"

"Mmhmm."

"Don't be this late in the middle of the week again, okay?"

"Mmhm."

"Oh Phoebe." Prue ran her hand over her sister's head sympathetically but silently amused by Phoebe's state. Her anger forgotten. For now.

The shadow demon watched the 'conversation' from a dark corner. As the sisters stepped towards the door, he jumped out with an energy ball, much the same that hit Piper. He aimed, threw, and hit the second oldest Halliwell in the back.

Prue felt the sharp pain shooting through her body as she was pushed against the wall by the energy ball. She felt her world slowly getting black. The last thing she saw was her youngest sister, eyes wide open, nothing more than shocked through her drunken state.

Phoebe felt comfortable on her sister's shoulder but not for long. She just felt her pillow being ripped away from her nearly making her fall. She couldn't believe her eyes as she opened them. Prue was flying through the air landing with a thud on the ground, a large gash on her back. She was just shocked first but after a few seconds ran to her fallen sister. She saw the figure forming into a shadow again as it disappeared.

Phoebe was cradling Prue's head, crying hysterically. Due to her alcohol it was even harder to think straight, not to mention the shock one's in in such a situation. She saw Prue's chest slowly stopping to move. It sent the young girl into total panic. The only thing she could think of was screaming. Scream for her other sisters.

Paige and Piper were still waiting for Prue and Phoebe to come home. They wanted to be awake in case Prue needed some help with the drunken teen. They heard a car pulling up on the driveway and doors shut.

"Finally. I'm kinda tired now." Paige said yawning.

"Yeah but she'll need her time to walk up the stairs with Pheebs. Besides I told you it would be okay for you to go to bed. I could have handled it alone, too." Piper giggled at her sister's tired face though she was tired herself.

"Nah, it's okay I don't mind. Actually I wanted to get Phoebe. I mean after telling Prue what happened I thought she'd get a heart attack or something. She was so shocked and upset and angry and…"

"Paige. How would you have reacted on her place?" She looked at her big sister while sipping from her tea.

"True." She admitted. But then she heard a strange noise, it sounded like a thud.

"Piper, did you hear that?" She asked looking towards the front door.

"Hear what? Maybe it was the wind. Anyway I didn't hear anyth.."

Piper was suddenly cut off by a loud scream. One that sounded so desperate it would have frozen anyone's blood, one that screamed her and Paige's name….. Phoebe.

With the colour draining from their faces, they ran outside as fast as their legs could carry them. The sight they saw then was the most scaring thing they had ever seen. There was Prue lying out cold on the ground, a red puddle forming on the grey cement of the stairway. Cradling her head was Phoebe, covered with blood, Prue's blood. She had blood on her hands, her front and her face as she had wiped at it to clear her vision from the tears.

The sight made their stomachs turn but they instantly realized than Paige had to go to Prue now, otherwise they'd loose her. Phoebe was still screaming her lungs out for Paige and Piper. She didn't realize the voice telling her to let go.

"Phoebe, Phoebe let go! I need to get to Prue's injury, I can heal her!" But Phoebe wasn't in a state to understand anything. She continued to scream for her sisters. It was a miracle no neighbour had showed up yet to see what was wrong.

"Phoebe! It's me, Paige! I'm here now it'll be alright but you have to let go first!" Paige screamed at Phoebe but with love in her eyes grabbing both her wrists trying to pull her away.

Piper realized her sister couldn't get the shocked and panicked girl away from the motionless body so she ran towards them and sat behind Phoebe. She quickly grabbed her by her thin waist and pulled her backwards. Paige began to use her magical hands and a warm glow appeared over Prue's wound as it began to close slowly.

Phoebe was still oblivious to what happened around her, except for the sight of Prue lying on the ground. She fought against the arms that had pulled her backwards. She was in panic she couldn't breath and still cried hysterically.

Piper saw that her little sister was totally out of control so she pulled her even closer to her from behind as she pressed Phoebe's head on her right cheek to make her listen to her words she spoke directly into her ear.

"Ssshhhh, shhhh, shhh. I got you now Phoebe calm down. Prue's gonna be alright. Look, Paige is healing her Prue will be fine now. Sshhh. Come on Phoebe stop this! Breath properly! I know you can do it!" Phoebe slowly began to realize who was talking to her and tried to calm down but again she failed as she inhaled the air way too fast and began to choke. Piper, upon seeing this, moved to the side patting her back rather with force. Then she pulled her to her again and put her palm over Phoebe's mouth. "Don't breath through your mouth honey. You have to calm down. Shh, shh, shh. I got you honey. Don't be scared I won't let anything happen to you. Look you're alright, I have you now, you're fine. Hear my breaths sweetie? Come on we'll do it together. In…out…in..that's it baby you're doing great. Now in….out….good girl. See? You can do it, you're okay." Phoebe began to calm down, her breaths slowly but surely getting to normal again. She was sweating on her forehead, the blood on her face mixed with her tears, her pale features nothing else but tired. "Shhh, it's fine now…….. there we go baby…….. that's my girl…..there's a good girl…" Piper's voice was already a whisper as she just held her little sister in her arms kissing her on the head.

By the time Paige was finished with the healing she steadied a still weak Prue as they made their way to their little sisters.

"How is she?" Piper looked up to see a tired Prue next to a just as tired Paige.

"She's fine now. I got her Prue don't worry. Are you okay? What the hell happened? God I'm so sorry I let this happen to you. And that right after we swore not to let this happen anymore." Piper said getting upset about herself.

"It's totally fine honey, you couldn't have prevented this. Besides, Paige saved my life, right?" She exclaimed looking gratefully at her big sis.

"Guess that's my destiny. I'm your healer. Good that no one's seen us. Now come on let's go inside. And then you can tell us what happened here." She said walking up the stairs.

"Pheebs, can you get up?...No?...Alright put your arms around my neck. Ready? One, two, three." And within three seconds, Phoebe was on Piper's back. She was so light anyone could have done that. They walked into the house. Piper settled Phoebe on the couch, went to the kitchen and came back in with a wet towel.

"Okay, love. Let's get you cleaned up. You should look at yourself." She said trying to lighten the mood. She didn't want to upset her even more in asking what happened. The youngest was still shaking a little, her colour not entirely back to her face. Piper rubbed the wet towel gently over her sister's face wiping away the now dried blood.

"P…Prue?" Phoebe stuttered weakly.

"Yeah honey I'm here. I'm fine." Prue took her sister's hand in hers.

"Y..you're really okay?" Phoebe asked with a tired voice.

"Yes sweetie, I'm alright. Just tired. And I know you are, too." As Piper was finished with Phoebe's face, Prue pulled the youngest to her chest, gently running her hand up and down her back. "I'm sorry I scared you so much. But now everything's fine, okay?"

"Mmmh wasn't your fault. Sorry I wasn…dere to ..pwotect..you.."With that, she was off to dreamland.

"Man, can you believe it? You're so good at that. It took me like ten minutes to just make her breath normally again. Is there any special trick you use?" Piper looked at Prue, impressed she got the girl to sleep in a few seconds literally.

"Yeah, she's quite hard to calm down so how did ya do it?" Paige agreed with Piper.

"I think she was tired cause of what just happened anyway so..wasn't really too hard to get her to sleep. Plus she was totally wasted." She told her sisters. Piper smiled but her face got serious again.

"Prue maybe we should go to a doctor or something and let him check her up. I know last time we were there he said there was nothing wrong but.. it can't be normal to get so worked up all the time. Maybe there is something wrong with her lungs or so and he just didn't see it the last time." Piper said concerned, somehow forgotten to ask what happened.

"Pipe don't worry I mean it wasn't long ago she was in hospital and they didn't say anything there, did they? Besides I think in the beginning like when she starts crying it isn't that bad. But then she kind of realizes that her breaths get out of control and she just panics. It's like the more she tries to calm herself down again, the more she sees it's not working so she just gets scared, causing her to choke in the end. So the only thing we have to do is to show her that it's alright not to calm down right away and keep her from panicking." Prue explained her theory.

"I think so, too. It's just a vicious circle you have to break. Did…did this happen before to Pheebs?" Paige was still uneasy about the fact that she didn't remember much yet.

"Yeah, actually quite a lot of times. Grams even thought she had asthma or something. So we let her be checked up but there wasn't anything wrong." Prue realized that Paige looked a little sad. "Paige, you'll remember, don't worry. I'm sure you will." She encouraged her.

"Thanks Prue, I really hope so.. Anyway, before we completely forget about it, what happened out there?" She looked more confident again.

"To be honest, I don't know. I saw nothing, I mean that thing whatever it was hit me in the back, so obviously I couldn't see anything. I don't know about her though." She looked to the sleeping figure in her arms.

"Should we wake her? We have to get her out of those blood stained clothes anyway." Piper indicated to the now red stained, originally blue jeans and the now red and white blouse.

"True it looks kinda scary, like some murder victim of Michael Meyers." Paige laughed, "But still I think we should let her sleep for now. I mean you should have heard her scream, Prue. My blood nearly froze."

"Oh poor baby. She must have been so scared. She didn't know you can heal, she surely thought I was gonna die." Prue said running her hand through Phoebe's hair.

"And it wouldn't be underestimated to say you were on the good way to it. If we had arrived a few minutes later I wouldn't know if you'd be sitting here talking to me." She said in a serious tone.

"Yeah Prue don't ever scare us like that again." Piper hugged Prue as did Paige, carefully not to wake Phoebe in the process. Like that, they fell asleep on the couch together.

The next day everyone stayed home, told their bosses it was a family emergency. Technically it was since two sisters nearly died on the same day.

Piper was in the kitchen making breakfast. She was the one who called all their bosses at work for she was the first one up.

"Mornin Pipe." Prue entered the kitchen.

"Morning. They still sleeping?"

"Yeah, soundly. Seems it takes a lot of energy to heal somebody. Have you called my boss already?"

"Yep, all done. So, how are you?" Piper sat down at the table with Prue handing her coffee.

"Thanks. I'm good, considering what happened yesterday. Do you think it was the same thing what attacked you before?" She said sipping her coffee.

"I don't know. I mean we're all new at this. We don't even know how to get rid of them." Piper answered while biting in an apple.

"Maybe that book has some information. We can look at it later maybe."

Meanwhile in the living room Phoebe stirred. She saw the events of the last night over and over again. Prue steadying her, then being ripped away, then the large gash on her back, the amount of blood running down the stone stairs. The strange black figure disappearing.

Paige was slowly waking but shot her eyes open as she heard the whimpering coming from next to her. She looked to her right and saw Phoebe, knitting her brows, perspiration on her forehead and suddenly bolting upright with a loud gasp, fear evident in her eyes.

Paige was holding her in a split second. "Shhh honey, it's okay. It was just a bad dream. You're okay now." Paige thought about what Prue had said about Phoebe the night before. "Pheebs don't get scared when you're out of breath. Nothing will happen to you. It doesn't matter that you don't calm down right away. Take your time." She said looking down at the tear stained face, gently rubbing her back. Phoebe was doing better than usual but her breaths were still very ragged. "Okay Pheebs, you're doing good. But now I'm gonna put my hand over your mouth to make you breath through the nose, okay? Don't panic." She said as she slowly covered her sister's mouth with her palm holding it shut. Phoebe kept looking at Paige the whole time, searching guidance in the beautiful brown orbs that were also her own. Paige just smiled back at her reassuringly. Eventually she calmed. "That's it…you're doing so much better sweetie. Now this is how to calm down, okay?" She said gently. Phoebe was now just leaning into Paige, enjoying the warmth that was there. "Do you want to tell me what you saw? Shall I get Prue or Piper?" Paige asked stroking her back. She felt Phoebe shake her head no. "Was that a no to the first or the second question?" She smiled at her.

"Second." Came the quiet answer.

"Alright. So you're ready to talk about it?"

"I…it was about last night." 'I thought so.' Paige thought.

"Okay. Go on honey, what happened last night?" She asked carefully.

"It was all blurry…I was drunk..I'm sorry Paige." Phoebe said quietly.

"It's fine. That's not important now. Just tell me what you saw." Phoebe sighed and began to speak.

"I was…I couldn't walk alone so Prue led me to the door. I don't know it happened so fast, I, I, I had my head on her shoulder but then the next second…it was like she was ripped away from me. Oh God I saw her flying through the air. The sound it made when she landed on the cold stones…it was horrible! I..I thought…there was so much blood and I thought she's gonna…God Paige I'm so sorry!" Phoebe broke down crying again.

This time Prue and Piper heard someone cry and rushed into the room where Paige was rocking her little sister back and forth, whispering calming words into her hair.

"Shhh baby, shhh. You've got nothing to be sorry for. It's okay now, Prue's alright, she's fine, see?" She made Phoebe look up to Prue who took her from Paige as soon as she reached her. Phoebe just threw herself at her older sister burying her face into the crook of her neck. Prue just rocked her, but realized she was a little more under control this time. She looked at Paige understanding what had happened and gratefully smiled at her.

"Pheebs honey, did you see anyone or anything there?" She asked quietly.

"There was…th…there was a figure, a black one…like..like a shadow… a.. and it disappeared…. Just like that to nowhere." She hiccupped between the words.

"That sounds like the one you killed, Paige." Piper looked at her oldest sister while lightly running the back of her hand over Phoebe's wet cheek, wiping away the tears with her thumb.

"Yeah. Maybe I should get that book. Grams and Mom said it would help." She said and made her way to the attic.

The four sisters sat in the living room with Paige having the BOS on her lap.

"Alright, apparently the creatures we've seen are shadow demons. It says there are lots of them so killing just one isn't enough. Though each one is really weak so it can be easily vanquished. They need time to regain energy between their first and second attack. Hence the disappearance of the one which attacked Prue." Paige explained.

"So what do we do? We can't kill all of them, that would take us like forever!" Phoebe said.

"No, we can't do that. But in here it says that it is enough to vanquish the head of them."

"And just how are we supposed to find him?" Piper asked.

"Well there's a spell or something in here that can summon him to us. And there are instructions how to make a vanquishing potion." She said reading the text. "Eww, which sounds pretty gross to me by the way." Paige pulled back a little.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's make the potion and summon him to kill him." Prue exclaimed though laughing at her older sister.

The potion was done, the spell cast and the leader of the shadow demons was now in front of them. No sister showed a sign of fear in front of it. The potion was thrown hard by Paige and the demon let out a loud roar, his body began to burn and shattered into million pieces.

"Guys, I guess we've just did our first real vanquish." Prue said. That night everyone was asleep in a heap. This was their first demon. There was still a lot to come.

So how did you like it? I know the ending is kinda short but don't mind it. I got more Paige as the eldest stories, does anybody want me to post them, too?


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